So I (5'3" / 160 cm) have been looking for bike to do some short tours and commutes with, for starters, and on a budget.
Is the dominant understanding that you simply can't find a well-proportioned frame with 700c wheels in sizes 52cm and under?
What I've gathered from reading what Georgena Terry and others have said about designing bikes for riders my height and under (plus looking at dozens of x-small road bikes on the used market) is that if you want to cram 700c wheels on a "level toptube" diamond frame with a seat tube of ~52cm or under, it requires compromises with the seat tube and head tube angles, meaning that the seat tube will be at a near vertical angle whereas the head tube angle will be notably slack? This seems to apply to at least most of pre-2000 road frames in the smallest of sizes.
Now, from theory to practice, I found an 80's road frame for cheap since the previous owner complained about the handling. I'm building it up, as an experiment, with 650B wheels and 38mm tires that it clears surprisingly fine.
With that configuration, I'm just barely able to straddle the top tube (=standing over it the bike slightly tilted or on my toes). Also numerous size calculators suggest that with ~70cm cycling inseam I'd need something smaller than 50cm, with answers ranging from 45 cm to 48 cm. I haven't been able to test ride my "experiment" yet, because I'm still waiting for some 155mm cranks in the mail to compensate for a meager 250mm of bottom bracket height after the 650B conversion. Let's see how that goes.
Now I've also got my eyes on a good deal on a sloped toptube frame for 650c wheels, but I'm concerned that with 38cm seat tube and 47,5cm (actual, not "virtual"?) toptube it might be even too small for me?
Since 650c wheels and tires in all but the skinniest junior training sizes are hard to come by, I'd perhaps consider mtb-sized 26" (559mm) wheels with >1" slicks for that frame...
I'd like to hear how this all sounds to you, and which route you might suggest me going?
