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Old 01-29-20 | 01:38 PM
  #24  
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Carbonfiberboy
just another gosling
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Joined: Feb 2007
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From: Everett, WA

Bikes: CoMo Speedster 2003, Trek 5200, CAAD 9, Fred 2004

The calculator indicates that you have a fairly short upper body and arms compared with leg length. Saddle goes up and down, so one really sizes bikes by the top tube length. If I were you, I'd go to a good bike shop and look at bikes with an effective 54 cm TT length. Get the bike shop to adjust saddle fore-and-aft position and height so that you have both KOPS and proper saddle height. Sit on the bike, hands on hoods, straighten your back, and see if your upper arms make about a 90° angle with your torso. If so, that's your size. If they can't even get close with saddle height or arm angle, maybe you do need a custom bike. OTOH, if it's close, maybe you should just buy a bike. In that case, take a test ride on a candidate that meets your cost expectations. Modern carbon bikes are pretty nice.

Don't worry about saddle to bar drop. That can be adjusted when a stock bike is built up. Most folks like something on the order of 3" drop, though some endurance riders use zero drop. If you start with an endurance bike model, it'll come out with less drop than a race bike.

I ride with one person who still has a Ti bike. He bought it 20 years ago. All the other Ti bikes ordered 20 years ago broke. Everyone else I know rides carbon - mine is a '99, still perfect.

You want the longest cranks they'll put on the bike, whatever you buy. Your optimal length is something on the order of 200mm.
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