Originally Posted by
Duane Behrens
I was "warned" by at least 5 posters that restoring a 50 cm frame for a person of my height (5' 10") was a bad idea...... You're correct - I got lucky. But I got lucky because I ignored the critics. And I wonder how may of those critics will now think twice before dismissing a concept of which, as it turns out, they know very little.
Not quite. You got lucky because you lucked into possibly the only bike made that had such odd-ball geometry. As a very general rule that applies to 99+ bikes out of 100, a 50 cm frame would be far too small for someone of your height. The fact that this particular frame had an abnormally long top tube that made it work for you didn't come out until way late in this thread and it's what saved your bacon.
So, if you can learn anything from this otherwise successful experiment it's measure everything twice early in the project and don't rely on luck in the future. You've used up your allotment of good fortune.
