Originally Posted by
bruised
So his friend huffs and puffs and mutters something incoherent and starts walking back towards the car. So I ask the guy whose eyes are still watering "Didn't you see that the frame was an XL, it was stated in both the ad title and in the description?".
"No", he replies.
"So you came all this way to look at a bike and you didn't know what size frame it had?
"I guess", he says to me nonchalantly, as if it's to be expected.
I'm not surprised at all. People who have previously only shopped for bikes in big box stores aren't that likely to know they even come in different frame sizes.
AFAIK my father's view of bicycle sizes when I was growing up was that kids got bikes with 20" wheels (or smaller) and then moved up to 24" wheels and eventually 26" wheels. When I mentioned a frame size it meant nothing to him (and when younger he had ridden a bike from Germany to Italy across the Alps - so he wasn't totally unfamiliar with bicycle touring).
Your ad didn't help much to make things clearer with the only indication being the "XL" which could stand for various things to the unfamiliar. No mention of it having an extra large frame nor a hint that it would be suitable for riders over 6' tall.