Road Cycling - I got my inseam..help

Ok i measured my inseam and it came out to 82cm....Now how does that help my fitment on a bike? I found a couple of used bikes for sale local and they seem to be in my price ranger as of right now (i want to get a awesome trek bike but i need to save)...thanks guys

Here's what I did when I started shopping for a new frame. I measured my inseam and went to wrenchscience.com and went through the rest of their measurement routine to get a place to start. The suggestions they spit out aren't the gospel by any means. Like I said, a place to start. There's a variety of similar online fit tools that will give you ideas as to what frame size, etc. to look for. There are a ton of shops in Austin, too. Have you tried talking to anyone from one of those shops to get a fit done?

inseam gives you a rough idea of what size frame you should be looking for; it says nothing about fit. fit requires a wgole lot of other information and some metrixs -- like top tube -- are muuch more important than seat tube. you should be looking for a frame in the 54 cm range...

Remember, the inseam measurement is just one measurement to pinpoint the right frame for you. It's a starting point, not the end all be all.

Inseam (in cm) * .667 = road bike frame size.

82 cm *.667 = 54.7 cm frame. Start out with either a 54 cm and a 56 cm and get the one with the more confortable reach.

Your saddle height is:

82 cm * .883 = 72.4 cm (from center of bb to top of saddle)

Remember, that's just a starting point!

L8R

No one can stress enough that any numbers you see are a place to start. For a first road bike, you should test ride many frames to determine which size is right for you. There are differences in the angles of the tubes in relation to one another that dramatically change the way one bike rides compared to another, sometimes to such an extent that you'll hate one company's fit and love another's, though both call a bike the same size.

reach is a more important measurement in bike fit... i think that if you are a person with normal leg and arm length, you can still easily straddle a bike that is too big for you...

Thanks guys...i need to get started looking around