Old 04-09-03, 09:27 AM
  #16  
davehorne
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Netherlands
Posts: 102
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 0 Times in 0 Posts
I think we might need to remeasure everything. I'm 5'9" and my inseam is 33". I'm of average height and build.

When I buy Levis, (we'll leave my waist out this), I usually buy a 33" length. On occasion a 32" length might work.

If your inseam is really 29" your legs _are_ shorter than what most of us expect from someone who is 6' tall. My current 'commuter' bike has a 57cm frame (I'm 5'9" with a 33" inseam). From what I can fathom, you probably have a difficult time buying clothes off the rack. (I also did in the US, but European sizes are more forgiving.)

If I were you, I would take a look at a 56cm or 57cm frame and work downward from there. I wrote earlier in this thread a 'ballpark' method of trying frames ... straddle a frame with your feet on the floor and your jewels with a bit of clearance above the frame.

Since your measurements are a bit out of the 'norm', you'll really going to have to experiment and have someone knowledgeable help you. You're not going to get a concrete answer here with what you've given us; you gotta go to a store and actually ride some bikes.

I'm fortunate that my bike guy actually rides bikes and knows his stuff. He knows my size even if I forget. His insights are good. I would _not_ buy a bike through the mail just to save a few bucks. If _I_ were not happy with my bike, I know my dealer would take it back and order the correct frame size for me ... that's a fact.

This is a difference in culture ... in Europe (well, at least in the Netherlands), you will be taken seriously and they will bend over backwards to make sure you have the right bike. Every village has at least one bike store.

FWIW, my local guy would have ordered a bike for me to try _even_ if I decided that the frame size was not correct for me; he would have sold it to someone else eventually.

Keep us posted with your choice. DH
davehorne is offline