thanks all for the honest responses
Originally Posted by
milliron
6'1" with a 32" inseam? Is that you're real inseam or your pants inseam? If that's real, then you have a long torso. I suspect the 55 is going to be too small. Might be able to make it work. But, if your weight distribution is off, handling is going to suck.
I do indeed have a longer torso- my actual inseam is 32". I had thought about the bad weight distribution, but I think of the two, I would rather not have a real short stem with twitchy response.
Originally Posted by
kensuf
While my wife keeps telling me size doesn't matter, I'd probably go with the 55 and longer stem.
hahahahah
Originally Posted by
rruff
Where are you now on spacers and stem length? What is your current headtube length? Need to know that before we can go further... but most likely either will be fine.
my current headtube is 190 mm on an endurance type
frame. I have no spacers and a -7 120mm stem sitting above a headset cone that is about 40 mm in length. The Kestrel head tube on the 55cm is 140 mm and 160mm for the 57cm. I'm not too worried about an aggressive saddle-bar drop as I've been wanting something more aggressive (a 50mm shorter head tube would definitely allow for aggressive).
Originally Posted by
ericm979
The ETT you're looking at (56.5 to 57cm) is what I use as well (with a 110mm stem) . But I'm 6' with a 35.5" cycling inseam, and my knees hit my elbows so it's pretty short for me. It sounds like that would be really short for you.
The problem with going to a smaller frame is seat to bar drop. Smaller frames have a shorter head tube. So you will need more spacers and/or a flipped up stem to get it to fit. It if fits at all. I have a significant (10cm or so) drop on my R3SL and that's with 20mm of spacer and a turned-up stem. I like the look of the turned-up stem and it makes for a more direct connection between fork and bars, but some people don't like it on their bikes because it does not look "pro".
It seems that if I have the proper stem length, elbow interference shouldn't be a problem... not sure, that's just how it seems in my head
Originally Posted by
cslone
And since you're local, you should just buy my SL1 and get it over with.
hah I had sent you a message about your frame a while back. I believe it was a bit more than I was looking to spend at the time...
to better tell what I think about the two sizes, I wouldn't have a problem going with the 57 if that is what I needed to do to get a proper fit. If I could go with the 55 (as it seems most are saying), I would rather do so to get a lighter, stiffer frame with a longer exposed seatpost to look cooler (hah!)