Advice on a bike , Australia . 130Kilos and 6'7 Tall
 

G'day ,

First post ever so be nice :)

Have been poking around the forums looking for some advice on bikes for someone of my height and weight. So far i have found lots of old post and post from the USA, and i was not sure how relevant they are to someone in Australia.

I was wondering if someone had some advice for a bike in Australia (South east QLD) for a bloke who is around 6 foot 7 inches tall around 130kgs and looking to ride :).

Looking for a bike for both going to work about 10 kms and riding for fitness.

oh budget is around 600 but cant afford to go over that by to much or the partner will beat me with the bike :rolleyes:.

Thank you for any help

Welcome to the forums mate :) Hmm I maybe a Trek 7.3 FX? Actually I dont know much about road bikes but I know outside of used or something like bikesdirect, maybe a hybrid would be a better choice?

hi and thanks,
yea i was thinking a hybrid or a mountain bike as i may want to go off road some times.

Sorry for the spelling amd gramma posting from a moblie device

edit again,
was looking on the trek webpage they also have some nice dual sport under thier cross country section. Has anyone tried or heard about these .

Thanks

Hi again ,

Not allot of answers so far so i asked a few bike stores. was suggested i get a
Kona Mahuna 29er Mountain Bike in 22" frame

for 859 dollars.

yea way over my 600 budget but is it worth it ?
Thoughts anyone ?

Well. You can check out specialized hardrock series or trek 820 and um let me go check real quick. oh and theyre all mountain bikes though a few will by hybrids.
edit: trek 820, the 3000s, 8.3, wahoo, marlin, and their 7.# series up to 7.3 fx are within your price range. Also some felts and giant makes good bikes too. felt Q520, Q24, felt flow. Giant roams, sedona maybe?

Hi,

Just shot a email off to my local bike store that sell trek see what they say :)

would be good to get it from them , rather than order online that way i can bombard (read harass till they get a court order) them with questions .

Maybe you have a cyclist who can help you search for a good deal on a used road bike, where you might get good value. Even on Ebay, you can get some good stuff for $610.82 American.

Watch the fit, as you probably need about a 26 or 27" frame on a road bike, which is not common. I'd stick with a road or touring bike for commuting and fitness, unless you're dead sure that you want to do a lot of off-road riding. A mountain bike might feel more comfortable at first, but you'll be faster and happier on the road bike when you get fit. Good luck.

Tergal, basically think long and hard about what sort of riding you want to do. I'm 6'5" and when I was 140kg I kicked off on a Giant Sedona which kind of compares to the Trail Glide. Back then, they came in a 23" frame. It's really tall, but not very stretched out. After a while on that bike, as I got fitter, I really wished I had laid my money down on something better built for offroad riding. I now ride road and track and I still have the Sedona, but pretty much exclusively use it to ferry my daughter around. Once she grows out of the kiddie seat, I might get rid of it.

Think about whether you would like to do road or off road and aim for a bike that suits your budget at the lower end of the discipline. This allows for some room to grow as you get fitter. As for frame "sizes", the numbers can be all over the place as different makers measure them differently. To compare apples with apples, check out the geometries of aything you look at and check out the effective top tube measurement (measured horizontally). You should be aiming at something with a 60cm top tube. The rest of the measurements don't really matter as for someone of your size, they aren't critical. You really just need the biggest frame you can get.

As for looking for 2nd hand, good luck. They are few and far between and I'm not sure of the market now, but when I got my roadie 2 years ago I bought 2nd hand, and anything that was big commanded a premium because there were obviously a number of purchasers out there for little stock.

A final note, if you're looking at road bikes, don't worry too much about relaxed geometry vs race geometry. The frames will be different in feel, but being a beginner, you probably won't notice. They usually plug a taller head tube to raise the bars for a more relaxed position. When you're 6'7" this doesn't really happen. An adjustable stem would be a big plus.

Hey, Tergal! Welcome, Cobber! Nice to see a denizen of Oz hang 'round these parts!

Best adice I hahve is to
A) Make sure the bike fits. At your height, you'll be wanting an XXL frame, like 68 CM if you are looking at a road bike. Mountain or compact geometry will be a different standard, but still XXL. I'm 6'2 (1.9 Meters) and ride a compact geometry 58 CM frame because I have a long torso and short legs (77 CM).

B) Good 36 spoke hand built wheels, or maybe 32 spoke if a mountain bike, at your weight (130 KG=286 lbs), 36 spoke, definitely, if you are going to be doing any hard terrain. If you get a road bike, again, I'd suggest you look at Velocity Deep V wheels in 36 spoke configuration. They'll pretty much stand up to anything you'd care to put them through, mate.

I'd suggest you start looking on www.bikeExchange.com.au to see what is available. You will have to find out what size suits you -- you are very tall and a lot of bike models stocked in Australia likely won't extend to your size right off the showroom floor.

Some localised brands to look for are Avanti (New Zealand) and Malvern Star (a revived name, but their models extend to a quality carbon-fibre job -- and yes, I know you aren't in the market fpr one of them, but it illustrates that the quality isn't bad).

Giants are very popular in Australia. Treks not as much. Specialized also has its fans.

I frequent eBay a lot, and I know there are bikes of various sorts come up there, including odd sizes (read, large and extra large) that might have been custom built for the owners but are no longer wanted. And quite a few are posted by SE Queenslanders.

That fit thing is the crux of it, however, You will need to see how a few frames at some bike shops suit you. Don't settle for too small or cramped just because the LBS guy wants to make a sale. I don't have any recommendations for a bike shop in SE Queensland, and there aren't any Bikes Direct equivalents in Australia as far as I know.

how about a Raleigh?

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/road-bike...#ht_500wt_1203

The seat tube measurement is important, too.


I am 6'7", as well, and have a heck of a time finding a bike that fits (without needing a 3' long seat post, haha). I've had the best results with the used market, finding some old steel in 64cm. That works for me, mostly, though a 66 or 68cm would really be more of a proper fit in a standard road bike.
Depending on your inseam, you may need to order a frame. I've found that almost none of the regular new bike market (Trek, Giant, etc) has much bigger than 60cm, maybe some 62cm here and there.

Welcome!
Have you considered posting your question here?
http://www.bicycles.net.au/The-Austr...ists.20.0.html

I'd look at getting a 29er mountain bike. In your price range, that's looking like being a specialized hardrock, or an avanti montari.

Check this link: http://www.bikeexchange.com.au/bikes/list?search[isBike]=1&rnd=20100715&search[newOrUsed]=-1&search[bikeType]=189&search[pa_type_id]=-1&search[bikeMake]=-1&search[size_id]=5&search[size2_id]=-1&search[maxAmt]=0&search[minAmt]=0&search[state]=3&search[pc_dist]=5&search[postcode]=&ezpz_hint_dummy_input=%28Enter+Keywords%29&search[q]=&search[orderBy]=0&search[flag_not_womens]=1&search[flag_womens]=1

so far
 

Hi all ,

Sorry about the slow repsonse , bloody no net after moving, and my 3G was playing up.

So after reading and reading , i decide two things

a) i wanted a local bike store
Reason , is i wanted help with fitting and support . Plus someone i could go to and go err what did i do wrong here.

b) i wanted a mountain bike ,
Reason for this , is i often go camping with family and friends and there is alot of trail and areas i can ride though, which while not a hard ride they would not suit a road bike at all :)

So i went to my local bike store , a place called Sonic bikes ( their website is horrible but their service is wonderful), and i brought a Trek Mountain Bike ended up being just under 700 , for the bike and 50 more for a helmet pump patches etc.

The bloke who helped me out , was about 6foot 1 himself , and he used a similar model but in a smaller frame , so we measured me up on a bigger one and it fitted nicely.

My bike will get delivered in a day or two ( free delivery BTW), i will grab the exact model for you later as i don't have the invoice on me right now and i have shoddy memory at the best of times.

Down the track once i have lost some wait and am more interested in speed i might look a second hand road bike for getting to work faster, but for now i will just plug away with this one .

oh and off the top of my head 32 spoke double walled front and 32 double walled back i think it was :lol:.

Gah what a wall of txt.... short version i got a Bike will let you know the model :innocent:

on a side note i emailed about 6 bikes stores around SE QLD , and 2 responded =( . one in VIC responded but was a bit out of my price range .

I wont name stores as maybe they where just having a bad day

Keep us posted as to your progress, Tergal. Happy riding!

so
 

Hi,

So i got my Bike last Friday, Trek 4300 not the best but far from the worst :)

I went for a ride on Saturday morning , nice and early so if i took my self out of a tree it no one would see. Got to say i love the bike it is a 24" frame but still light enough for me to carry one handed , the only down side to me is the seat god my arse is sore :lol:.

Will give it a week or two and if i haven't gotten use to it i will look for a bigger one for my ample behind.

Also went for a ride on Sunday and today i rode to work, all in all i have done about 20 km on it so not much but it is a start.

Thanks for those that helped and to those that have posted in other threads with so much information and encouragement.

Have set the goal of April next year to lose about 20 kilos ( more would be better but not sure how likely it is ) but if i have at that point and i am still riding each day i will also look at getting a second hand road bike or something along those lines. That way i get the best of both worlds :D .

Posting this at work and i still have to ride home in 4 hours so maybe by then i will be selling the bike on ebay :lol:

Thanks guys

Where can you buy a 68 cm frame? The largest I found was a 63 or 64 cm that wasn't a custom build.

By the way I'm 6' 7" too. Get a pro bike fit done before you buy a bike. I wish I would have before I bought. I rode 2 seasons and now just got one. It would have saved me quite a bit of discomfort if I had gotten one right away.

Got some significant dosh to do it up right, look at Koga Miyata's Signature program
there you have a menu , pick frame size [dutch have had well fed children.
since the war, so tall ones are catered to]
and the components, and they assemble it and ship it to a dealer, you have one in eastern Australia
according to their dealer's page .. Koga.com

just a thought
 

i carry a back pack to work ... any thoughts on something to strap on to the bike to replace that .

yea not the best term but i cant remember what they are called atm.:(

normally i carry a 7inch tablet a wallet and a small lunch to work so doesn't have to be to big.

edit: also should add i should be carrying a pump and patch kit etc....slack i know

You may want to invest in racks and panniers, as well as a laptop sleeve. I believe there are also panniers fitted to carry laptops . Shocks to the computer tablet may be the hazard in riding with it on the bike. Summer's coming for you, and a backpack may get hot for you.

would that work ?

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Bike-Bicy...ht_1620wt_1322

would need a bag for it as well

or am i better off with one of those ones that clip down on to the bike like
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/TOPEAK-BI...item5646f49a1c

just one that is a tad cheaper :lol:

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=228861Heres How a rack, with the side supports,looks on my rig, with a rack top bag. I might suggest the second rack, for added versatility. It would allow you to use either a rack top bag, or add panniers later if you wished. The first rack would need additional side arms for pannier use, to keep them out of the spokes. Those are available, but might drive the cost of the first rack to be more than the first.

not sure if I'm too late coming to the conversation on this, but I have a Kona Mahuna and it's great. I'm 6'0", 180 lbs and a 20" Mahuna fits me well. It's best for riding steep hills and such.