Originally Posted by redtires
+ infinity
Yes. some other bike may fit you better.
I would not suggest you get the smaller size. The discomfort and pain of riding a smaller bike is almost as much as riding a bike that bit too large.
its pain to pedal a small bike on a climb. when you play with the stem and seat post too much, your position on the bike is really wired. and that may cause serious handling problem and injury. your knees and ankles may stress too much bacuse of your position and pedaling cycles.
The only and significant problem of going with a larger frame is the standover height. Cause if you dont have enough clerance and crash badly, you can injure your sensetive parts. but, overall I prefer a bit larger bike. cause a longer top tube and a shorter stem is really nice for quick handling.
By the way, whats the length of your inseam? I am 5'10" with 33" inseam. and I ride a bike with 29.4 standover height. However, I dont do FR or downhill type riding. My style is mostly AM (on the XC side of AM).
good luck .