Originally Posted by
Tourist in MSN
And when I said "..., then compare stand over height to make sure it is adequate." how did you interpret that to mean that it is (to use your word) nonimportant?
Just to be clear I wasn't picking on you alone. My comments were aimed more at others who I knew were going to say that standover is totally unimportant. But you made it sound unimportant. You weren't as dismissive as others are but you put it way down on the list of considerations.You say to consider other fit considerations first and
then make sure that the standover is "adequate".
Standover, especially for smaller riders is the very first thing that people notice when they straddle a bike. Would
you accept a bike that was about to split you in two when you first throw a leg over it? For far too many years, bicycles for smaller riders have been limited to a kind of a "and others" sizing. Up until the late to early 2000s, bicycles the smallest bicycle around was a 19" and small riders were told just "lean the bike over on stops". And that was on bikes that had 700C wheels. That's hardly a good fit for small riders.
Would you, for example, choose to ride a bike that is 4" to 6" or more taller than you would "normally" ride? I certainly wouldn't and, yet, we asked small people to do that for a very long time. Even now it's not perfect with smaller bikes being relegated to the "kids" category in many respects.
Originally Posted by
alan s
Standover is really important for mountain biking. Touring, not as big a deal.
Originally Posted by
fixedweasel
1st...........Top tube length
2nd..........Saddle to bar drop
3rd..........Head Tube length as this will effect the the 2nd
Reach is absolutely everything, and all three of the above affect that as far as geometry goes. Also, the stem that you choose can dial in your fit once the correct frame size(ing) is completed.
Last.......................Standover
Really? Of all the measurements on a bike, the saddle to handlebar drop is the very least important, especially for touring cyclists. It may be an important parameter for racing but for touring, most people are going to have a relatively even saddle to handlebar height. We aren't racing, we are out to see the countryside.
It's fairly evident that you've never dealt with fitting bikes to people of small stature. The saddle to handlebar height and the (mostly useless) head tube length are seldom something that can even be considered. Small bikes
can't have large saddle to handlebar drops because the head tube is limited in how low it can possibly go. Even a very small bikes, there still needs to be
some head tube and when you have a bike that has a sloping top tube by default, those aren't even considerations.
Originally Posted by
fixedweasel
No one that I have ever seen rides a touring bike sitting on the top tube. As long as you have clearance when standing, you are quite fine. And if you properly fit yourself with the top 3 above, you will very very rarely have an issue with standover if a bike's geometry is designed correctly.
You...and many others...make the mistake of thinking that a bike will fit in all categories other than standover so you should check those parameters first. Is that
really how you test fit a bike? Do you walk into a shop and measure all the top tubes (or head tubes or handlebar drop), pull the bike off the rack and walk to the register?
Every bike shop I've
ever been in starts with the salesperson eyeballing the customer and/or asking about height. Then they pull out a bike and have the person straddle the frame. Then they asks about standover. Only after all those preliminaries do they start looking at how the person fits to the frame in terms of reach.
That's how I fit frames to myself. If the bike has too high a standover...i.e. the dangly bits are too close to the top tube...I know instantly that the bike is too big and not worth further investigation.