AnnMa

Question to those who ride both road and mountain bikes. Is your mountain bike smaller than your road bike or is it the same size? I am 5'9 and I rode a 56 road bike for a few years. It was ok, but I switched to a 53 and it is so much more comfortable. I also have a large, 29er mountain bike that is too big, but I didn't ride it much and it was cheap so I didn't care. However due to a move, now I have a lot better options for mountain biking, so I bought a better quality Medium 27.5 hardtail. I noticed the hardtail is slightly bigger than my roadbike. So I am just curious of other people's experiences.


Ps. I wanted to add a pic, but it tells me "Alert" and nothing else when I am trying to upload it.

Road Fan

Do you mean the MTB fits slightly bigger, looks bigger, or measures bigger?

Generally if the size of the MTB feels fine and does not cause any concerns or limitations, there’s no reason to change. Unless you don’t like the color!

cyclezen

The 'alert' should be a notice that you can;t post a pic until you reach at least 10 'posts' (post anywhere in BF)
I'm now a hair above 5'9", and a I ride Spec. Tarmac, Roubaix and assrtd older roadies - 56 or 57cm, mostly 'square' geo dims... Spec calls them a L.
Ride the same designation for my Spec Stumpjumper FSR - L. The Stumpy is 27.5 and still physically much larger than the road bikes, but 'fit' is fine.
mtb position is much more upright and 'forward' than road, and both road and mtb feel, work, are comfortably great. The 'position' one might want for road and mtb are usually so different that comparing bike 'size' is usually not gonna result in any important info.... I tried riding a 29r mtb, and found it just too unwieldly to handle in tight, sketchy situations - very much prefer the handling of my 27.5.
I don;t do high speed flow/downhill mtb, but I do ride trails with a technical nature, at a 'survival' speed... LOL!
If you like the way your mtb feels/fits, then don;t worry about the size appearance.
Ride On
Yuri