oik01

Does this bike look too small?

After a recent bike fit I was told that my probable size would be a 58 cm trek madone or emonda but he was going off his own measurements of my trek 5000 bike which I am not sure were accurate. There were no 58 cm frames available locally so I tried the 56 cm emonda and a 58 cm tarmac ( which by geometry charts should be longer). The bikes felt pretty comfortable to me and I couldn't tell them apart much if Im honest. I took pictures to help and the emonda looked on the picture to be cramped.The tarmac looked better on a still pic to my eye. Feeling wise, they both felt quite similar to me.
Now I didn't like either bike. Im not sure if it was the wheels ( they were an SL5 and a tiagra model) because they just felt like they weren't as responsive as other bikes I tried. Perhaps it was the setting. I expected more of them.

I drove to another nearby shop and tried the madone. Again size 56 so wouldve been expected to be similar to emonda. Also felt great but this time it was very agile and responsive ( but higher end model) which sucks because I was hoping the cheaper bike (Emonda SL5) would be the winner. In any case, the fit felt good to me though admittedly you can't tell much in 10- 15 minutes riding. What do you guys think of the photos? Am I truly a 58? Or is this 56 good? Or is it a case of I can fit either size? I feel like I would probably experiment with going down a little as in my current setup I am definitely not this upright.

Also I am surprised the emonda looks so different than the madone. Perhaps its that the saddle was set up too low for me? They should otherwise be the same geometry I thought.
Madone 56:
Video:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wKX...ew?usp=sharing










https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wKX...ew?usp=sharing

Tarmac 58 ( 110 mm stem):


Emonda 56:

sovende

IMO, I agree that the Emonda 56 "looks" too small. Even if the saddle was raised some, I think that you'd need more reach.. I'd go with what feels the best to YOU!

oik01

What about the madone in the video and first pics? It's the same exact geometry and size but to me looked fine in that setup 🤷🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️

chaadster

The black/blue bike looks pretty perfect, and the Specialized does as well. The grey/white Trek looks small, and yeah, your seat is low.

I do kind of like how the grey/white Trek looks to tuck the wheel in under you a little better than the others, but the front end is too short, shifting your weight balance too high and forward from the center of the bike. Stick to the 58s; you’ll have the room to adjust your position to taste in a way you don’t have on the 56.

y2zipper

What's your height and inseam?

bruce19

Inseam? In the first pic your leg at full extension looks pretty straight. That could just be a saddle that is too high. I always start with inseam and go from there.

oik01

Height and inseam: 182 cm height ( hair under 6 feet). 86.2 cm inseam.
Its interesting all of you had the same comment... that the first bike madone looks good, but the emonda looks small even though they have the same exact geometry numbers.

To me it seems that either a 58 or a 56 cm bike would likely work. With the 58 I will be a bit higher and might have to shorten the stem, with the 56 I can probably go lower, and might end up with a 110 mm stem. Given that on my current trek 5000 I always felt a bit stretched out, I might be tempted to err on the smaller side and if needed get a long stem pro style.

y2zipper

The inseam measurement puts you squarely in a 58, at least for the Treks. I'm the same height as you but don't have the inseam to ride a 58, so I ride a 56. I went with an emonda when I shopped last year and my fit has been dialed in perfectly.
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Koyote

Don't you understand how bf works? You're supposed to first buy the bike, then ask what we think of the fit. And you get bonus points for buying the wrong size and then arguing with us.

but fwiw, the bike in the first few pics - the black and blue frame - looks like a good fit.

oik01

The black and blue has stack 363, reach 391, and 93 mm reach handlebar. Same as the emonda. total reach should be 584 mm.
The tarmac had a stack of 591 and reach of 402 but also a 110 mm stem and 75 mm reach handlebar. So the reach of that set up is 587.

I guess the bikes aren't that different after-all... the size 58 tarmac has very similar reach to the 56 madone, deceptively so because of the short handlebar. I might try a 58 cm madone if I get a chance but I felt good on these,... thinking the default will be 56 unless the 58 feels extremely better.

oik01

Its interesting how each company fits you. Ive looked at a lot of brands and they each recommend a different size with corresponding reach/ stack vastly different than the other. For example canyon puts me at a M always which more closely fits the geometry of a 56 madone. Orbea had me at 56 as well I think.

I guess, it sounds like people tend to be more uncomfortable with a bigger size frame than a smaller one and Id probably best err on the smaller side if I have to?

Moisture

The specialized looks like a very good fit for you.

y2zipper

The conventional wisdom is that if you're actually in between sizes, you take the smaller size because a bike can usually be adjusted to feel bigger rather than the other wat. The flip side is that if you have to use an extremely long stem because your frame is too small, you lose some responsiveness and handling. The other thing to remember is that a bike is like a nice suit: it's not going to fit off the shelf and needs tailoring to get dialed in. With a bike, there are some things that you feel right away and other things that you feel 30 miles into a ride.
In your pictures the 58 tarmac looks like the best off the shelf fit for you and is the one I'd get.

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Kabuto

I'm 183cm tall with 91cm inseam, and went with a 58 instead of a 56. I already have a ridiculous amount of seat post showing with a 58 so no need to make it worse by riding a 56 lol.

As a poster mentioned above, you're in between sizes, and with a few tweaks I think you could make either a 56 or 58 work for you. Really comes down to how flexible are you and how much saddle to handlebar drop you want/are comfortable with. With a 56 you'll have more drop, and with a 58 less drop. FYI Trek bikes tend to have long reach handlebars (100mm or so), so if you swap the handlebar out for a short reach handlebar (70-75mm), you effectively downsize the reach one size.

y2zipper

Something my fitter mentioned to me was that Treks that are the right size consistently feel big because they are stocked with 100 mm stems, 100 mm reach bars and set back seatposts at 56 and up. I ended up going to the center set short mast seatpost and a 90 mm stem to get the correct reach that fit.

chaadster

Oh, wow...so both the Treks pictured are the same size and geometry? Okay, the photo angle on that grey/ white one must be throwing me off, because it looks way different. If they’re the same, then, yeah, they both fit fine.

Koyote

I think you are mistaken on that. A 56 or 58 (I've lost track of which is which) will have much more stack than that.

Kabuto

Probably a typo, and should be 563 instead of 363 > just checked, a 56 Emonda has a stack of 563.

To the OP, a stack difference of 28mm is a lot btw. Your saddle height has to be the same regardless what size you ride, so the bars will be 28mm lower with the Emonda, than the 58 Tarmac. You can of course raise the stack using spacers (up to 30mm?), but you can do that with the Tarmac too.

DaveSSS 

If that 86cm inseam is accurate, you have short legs and a long torso. The saddle height on the specialized was set too high and the trek too low.

I'm only 5'-6" tall and my inseam is 83cm, with a 73cm saddle height. I used to buy frames that were too large, to fit my legs, but they were too long for my torso. Now I buy for my torso and it works because I can tolerate a 10cm saddle to bar drop. I'd buy a 50cm with a 521 stack. For your inseam, the 56 would allow a lower bar position than the 58. Either could work, depending on how aggressive you want the fit. The bars that come with these bikes don't have really low angles, like the -17 that I use. A -6 raises the bars by 2cm. The trek bars have a long reach that's good for a long torso rider. I prefer a separate stem and bar, so changes are easy. I'd go with the smaller size, but I'd consider whether the reach would require a longer stem.

Iride01 

I haven't bothered to look up the specs, but I imagine the 58 cm frame might have hellatiously long cranks for you. As well the handle bars might be a couple cm wider and for some a wide handlebar braces up our shoulders too much which can cause soreness in shoulders and upper back.

Is the frame the wrong size for you? Maybe not. Might just need to change handle bars, stem and maybe cranks.

Moisture

According to his 86cm inseam, using leonard zinns method of crank fit (just a rough starting point/general guidelines for fit,) he requires 180 or 185mm crank arms. Hopefully he didn't get his inseam perfectly accurate and the 175mm arms as equipped on most 58cm bikes will be a good fit for him.

Otherwise , and new stem and probably wider handlebars would be a worthwhile option to look into.

oik01

The inseam measurement was made by a bike fitter.

After long test rides I went with the 56 cm frame. Really glad I did. When I got home I put the frame next to my current 58 cm mid 2000s ride and they're very similar. If anything to my untrained eye the new one seems a bit higher / longer. Obviously the old bike stack and reach measured during my bike fit were way off. Below are the pics. If my experience is anything to go by, perhaps for people moving from early 2000s frame sizing down might give you a similar fit.

oik01

Thanks everyone for your help through this. I love this community!

Moisture

The 56cm bike could just have a higher bottom bracket drop.

Have you tried playing around with different saddle heights, angles and fore aft positioning to make sure you have the right amount of leverage over the bottom bracket? Once you do that, keep your back straight and take your hands off the bars. Do you feel inclined to lean back or are you comfortable with the current handlebar reach? Can you comfortably support the weight of your upper body without putting too much weight into the handlebars?

For your inseam, I would look into some 180mm crank arms.

I like going for shorter stems, because I can maintain a similarly low riding position as before but with my elbows closer to a 90 degree bend..