el duderino

I am 6'0" with a 32.5" inseam measurement. Everyone seems to want to steer me towards a 19-20+ frame, but I feel more comfortable on the 17" Marin I'm trying out. The standover height of the 17" is 31.5" (the 18.5 is 32.75"). Am I crazy or is this normal for this line of bikes.

BTW...I'm looking at REI and the guy I talked to wasn't much help.

Thanks

Speedub.Nate

You also want to consider cockpit length. How's the reach on the 17" frame? Are you too upright? Not stretched out enough. This can partly be addressed through stem and seatpost changes, but that's not necessarily advisable if you favor the steering characteristics of a shorter stem.

It could be that the Marin simply isn't the frame for you. At your size, it seems unusual that you would have so little standover clearance on a 17" frame.

For reference, my wife rides a 15.5" Marin, but she is 5'6" and has a 31" inseam (also, it's not a hardtail, but it's the ETT that fit her).

Personally, I'd try out some other brands for the sake of comparison.

el duderino

I have ridden many different bikes and the 17" Marin feels good. It's just the fact that it's a 17 incher that freaks me out. I have noticed through looking around a bit at specs that there standover heights seem to be much higher than other bikes. The 17" rides and looks a lot more like a 19" IMO, I just wanted to see if anyone else has had this issue.

Peek the Geek

I experienced the same thing with my Marin. I couldn't find one near my size here, so I had to rely on internet specs. The numbers were putting me on a 15". I thought, no freakin way, that's too small. But I got the 15" and it fits. Granted, I am riding a longer than average stem on it, but only a little longer than average.