Originally Posted by
Dunbar
Here's a picture, I have been raising the seat up to eliminate knee pain. The drop is just an estimate but I have a 31.5" cycling inseam and the frame is 19.5". I'm only 5'9" so I didn't think a 21.5" frame made sense. I've thought some sort of stem raiser + some 1.5" riser bars that I could rotate to tweak seat-to-bar length would do the trick.
By looking at that picture my first instinct says that the frame is WAY too small for the rider, having that many spacers with that much drop.
Forget about height. The measurements that count are inseam relative to seat tube length and trunk measurement relative to top tube length. Arm length/stem length are important too.
Judging by your inseam, that frame is roughly 4cm too small for you. 19.5" is roughly 49.5cm, 21.5" is 54.6cm. Assuming an "average" inseam to torso measurement, I think the 21.5 inch frame would be a much better fit for you. I have an inseam just under 30" and my frame size is 20"/51cm center to top.
Are you sure that cycling inseam is correct? How are you measuring it? That still looks like quite a lot of exposed seatpost for that size frame, but it would be easier to judge if the camera angle in the photo were straight on. The previous poster mentioned the possibility of the saddle being too high, which is certainly possible.