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Finding reach with a road bike for a mountain bike purchase

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Finding reach with a road bike for a mountain bike purchase

Old 04-11-21, 08:16 AM
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zeego
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Finding reach with a road bike for a mountain bike purchase

Hi all. Is it possible to find your reach with a road bike to find the desired reach for a mountain bike?
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Old 04-11-21, 07:18 PM
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They're totally different fits, why would you want to? If you really want to know look it up online.
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Old 04-11-21, 08:19 PM
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In a rough sort of way you can probably measure to the tops and you might be in the neighborhood; might be down the street and around the block close.

There will be differences, bar width and height, but it might give you a starting point.

John
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Old 04-11-21, 08:24 PM
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One thing I have found useful is to preserve the distance from the center of the saddle to the primary hand position (for me, hoods on the road bike, and where the brakes are on the mountain bike). Many folks prefer to ride more upright on a mountain bike, so in a sense this gives an upper bound. Stems tend to be much shorter on mountain bikes, but the hand position is further out (depending upon flat bar width, it might be greatly extended).
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Old 04-12-21, 04:23 AM
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Originally Posted by wgscott
One thing I have found useful is to preserve the distance from the center of the saddle to the primary hand position (for me, hoods on the road bike, and where the brakes are on the mountain bike). Many folks prefer to ride more upright on a mountain bike, so in a sense this gives an upper bound. Stems tend to be much shorter on mountain bikes, but the hand position is further out (depending upon flat bar width, it might be greatly extended).
I found this video to be extremely helpful:

To add to the difficulty, most bike dealers around here don't have any bikes to feel out. You essentially have to purchase a bike online to secure an allocation and hope for the best at this point. Its crazy.

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Old 04-14-21, 06:50 PM
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Road and MTB fit are very different animals. Every decade that goes by, conventional wisdom around fit diverge farther and farther

Fit can even change between different types of mountain bikes.

There are certainly people out there who continue to fit their MTB and Road bikes the same, because that’s the way they learn to do it in 1992.

Last edited by Kapusta; 04-14-21 at 06:54 PM.
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Old 04-15-21, 09:07 AM
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What's your height and in-seam?
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