macteacher

Well...I rode 40km today. Wow...i was exhausted afterwards. I tip my hat to all you commuters who ride those distances and more.

The bike in question. $740 taxes in. It is very lightweight, in fact its almost exactly what im looking for. Only one concern. It's a 19" bike. I'm a medium build person. Everything I wear, clothes, helmet, gloves, etc is all medium. My mountain bike is a medium fit. This Marin at 19" is classified as a large fit. The salesperson told me because i'm 5'9/10 both a medium and a large would suit my needs. (he only had a large in stock). I did take it for a test ride and it was fine. I noticed it was a bit bigger than what im used to.

Its an all around great bike....my brooks saddle on my current bike sits a bit to forward. I can't move it any more to the back. I'm thinking with the longer frame, that brooks saddle would sit perfectly...but of course its kind of a guessing game.

I'd be using the bike to go to work everyday. That would be its primary purpose.

What are your thoughts? How do you know what the 'right' size should be? Is he right, that at 5'9'10, a 19" would be good? When I rode it, I noticed I was spread out a bit more than I am on my current 25 year old department bike. I just don't know after a 10k ride how i'd feel.

the bike:

Torrilin

Small, medium and large don't mean a whole lot. I'm not a very small woman in practice (5'6", 160lbs, size 9 feet so a bit bigger than average), but because of my build, I am most comfortable on a fairly small bike. I've tested a lot of different size bikes, and the me sized bikes are always fairly obvious... and not necessarily what one would expect from numbers on paper. Some manufacturers just don't seem to make me sized bikes, and that's fine.

If the 19" bike felt comfortable on a longish test ride (say 6-10km), it's probably fine. If the shop isn't ok with such a long test ride, I'd be reluctant to buy from them. If they're not ok with a long test ride and they don't have a bike fit setup to use on you, I'd not buy from them at all. A bike fit setup is a way of measuring the rider thoroughly so they can buy a bare bike frame or custom bike frame and hang the right bits on it so that it fits correctly. (a bike fit setup can include an experienced mechanic/bike fitter who just eyeballs you... but even there, some measurements are a good idea)

CCrew

I'm 5'9" and ride a Trek in 19.5" frame size. Feels good for me so I go with it. It's more about whether it feels right than trying to meet an arbitrary number because it's "supposed to be". I've run into similar as you though, in that bikes that were supposed to be the correct size felt too small or too large. My LBS jokingly refers to me as a "tweener" because I'm big for a medium but small for a large.

-R

macteacher

This is my constant problem when fitting anything