Originally Posted by Iarider

Hi all. New to forum. Just got a 2016 7.5 FX. I'll be 57 next week so it's kind of a birthday present to myself. I started riding about 5 years ago when my wife and I got bikes. I've been riding a Giant Cypress comfort bike but the more ride, the more I feel the weight and crave better gearing. So, shopped around and almost pulled the trigger on a Felt flat bar something or other with disc brakes. But, found it rather jarring in the seat over bumps. Then tried the FX and really liked it, seems to handle the bumps much better. Of course, since then (a week ago) I've been questioning if I made the right choice. There's a lot of chatter about "you must ride a road bike" but I find the drop bars a bit too aggressive. The 7.5 seems very close to a road bike with flat bars.

Now, here's my big concern and question. I'm 5'11'' with a 33" inseam, book spine to floor. I tried the 20" model which felt good but a bit cramped in the reach. The LBS folks suggested I try the 22.5" model and it felt better, really could stretch out my reach. I have about 1" clearance in bike shorts standing over the bar, which seems OK to me. But, all the specs say I should be on the 20" bike. I've read a lot of chatter online about the "correct" size frame and I can find opinions at both extremes so I'm pretty sure I'll be fine with this frame but I still have time to exchange it for the smaller frame under the 30 day guarantee. So, thought I'd ask for opinions on this. I'm probably looking to reassure myself but I'm interested in new information regarding this I can find.