Firstly, let me say I've got to ask you for tips on how you get your older daughters to tour with you. I have two children 7 and 10 and though they ride with me (upto 35 miles) every week that's more because I told them to and I'm not sure they'll want to when older.
Originally Posted by
Doug64
I have to agree with most of the folks here, that the 49 cm frame would almost certainly be too small for a 5'10" person. One 5'5" daughter rides a 50 cm, 26 "LHT, Our 4'11 daughter rides a 42 cm, 26" LHT, and my 5'3' wife rides a 47 cm, 700c custom built bike. I'm a little over 5'11" and all my bikes are in the 57-58 cm range. It seems to me you'd fit somewhere in the middle.
Looking at the Surly website it seems its a semi-compact frameset with the ETT of the 50cm frame being only 52.5cm and the 54cm frame has an ETT to match the 49cm Fuji Tourist frameset.
Originally Posted by
Doug64
I'd suggest you try out any bike with a 49-50 cm frame and see how it feels.
I completely forgot. I rode many centuries on a 50cm compact frameset and it felt great, but I never toured with it. The bike was a BD Dawes Lightening.
Here is the geometry comparison. They look identical except the Dawes has a 5cm longer HT.
Dawes Fuji
SEAT TUBE, CENTER TO TOP 500 490
ACTUAL TOP TUBE LENGTH 523.8 525
EFFECTIVE TOP TUBE LENGTH 545 544.7
CHAIN STAY 420 440
BB DROP 71.1 80
FORK OFFSET 45 60
HEAD TUBE ANGLE 72.5 70
SEAT TUBE ANGLE 73.5 73
WHEEL BASE 994.3 1042.1
STAND OVER HEIGHT 781.9 757.8
BB HEIGHT 268.4
FORK STEERER LENGTH 246
HEAD TUBE LENGTH 156 100
STEM LENGTH 100 90
STEM ANGLE ADJ 0
HANDLEBAR WIDTH 420 420
HANDLEBAR RISE NA NA
CRANK LENGTH 172.5 170
SEAT POST DIAMETER 27.2 27.2