Mountain Biking - probably a very dumb question

on my bike right below the seat post it has a sticker that says medium, now ive heard of small medium and large bikes but im now just getting worried,what does it mean? im about 180 pounds and six feet tall so is my bike too small, it seems to fit me really well so i need some(alot) of advice> thanks

If you are comfortable then you are probably ok. Important factors are flexibility and the length of your legs. As you get better, you may want to tweak your bikes setup to take advantage of your new power and skills. Hope that helps a bit. :D

When you stand over the bike, how many inches between the top tube and your crotch? For mtn biking, you should have 3 - 5", depending on who you ask. A lot of serious mtn bikers will purchase a bike a bit smaller then normal. This allows greater maneuverability and room to move around the bike. I am 6'4" tall, and ride a med mtn bike. Yes, my seat post is almost 10" long, but the bike fits, and i can get around just fine on it. Most importantly, it’s comfortable to me.

thanks, at six foot one and 180 to 200 lbs i dont think im gonna grow any more, i love that bike so ill stick with it, what do you mean il wanna tweak it, im not too good with slang terms.

probably around 3-5 inches in the crotch, so is that ok?

As Joe points out, it is all about comfort. As you improve you will find yourself making small changes to compliment your new skills.

bike_man_15, how long is your top tube? Measure from the center of the head tube to the center of the seat tube on a horizontal plane. If it is 23.75 inches or more you're good to go. Also, how long is your stem?

You can tweek you bike in a variety of ways. You can slide the seat forward and back on the rails usually about 2" range. Of course you can adjust the height.

Stems come in different lengths and angles(height) so you can move the handlebars out and up or whatever.

You can choose between a flat handlebar (used commonly on race bikes or older bikes) or switch to a riser bar (1", 1.5" or 2" rise bars are common. That'll put you in a more upright position.

You can change the cranks out for longer or shorter ones depending on you inseam length or the type of riding you do. (i.e. downhillers and slalom riders use shorter cranks for clearance issues, XC guys use longer cranks for better levereage!)

Those are about all I can think of at the moment!

BTW, I'm 6'0" and I have 2 bikes, my XC bike is a large and my "play" bike is a small. It's all a matter of what you like and if you're comfortable on it!

L8R

Are you talking Mountain Bike or Road Bike. In my experience, road bikes are more critical to sizing that MBs. So much so that the pros will use a different size bike for flat races vs mountain stages. For climbing, you want a size that will allow you to be a little more upright, that way, when you stand to climb, you are upright a little more than if you had a smaller frame. Since you are stating size M, I am guessing MB?

mountain bike