Originally Posted by
Pinhy
It really wasn't that bad of a fit, in and of itself. I had the seat pretty high, got on and rode it...simple. Once I got on the 58....THEN I realized I had been really hunched over.
My riding group consists of a couple friends and that's about it. Most are inline skaters. This "new" guy (had moved out of town for 8 months so wasn't around when I bought it) is the one who immediately noticed.
Live and learn!
It is hard to notice a bad fit when you have nothing to compare it to.
I used to think I could ride any 62 cm road bike or 21" mountain bike, until I bought myself a shiny new 21" mountain bike sight unseen, and couldn't figure out why I was suffering so much and could not ride as fast as I could on my last bike... I almost gave up cycling, figuring I was just too fat and it was too difficult. Turns out the bike was a poor fit! I got a new frame with taller head tube and longer top tube and I enjoyed riding again.
FWIW, my major complaint about BSOs (bike-shaped objects - the craptacular bikes sold at big box stores), besides the absolute absence of skill and care used during assembly, is that they generally only come in one size, and if you are not between ~5'6" and ~5'10", the bikes will not fit and you wouldn't even know what a bike is supposed to feel like.