Originally Posted by
kerlenbach@cfl.
Wait a second. A new rider doesn't know what fits.
Thats correct -- thats why he needs to deal with someone that does know what fits. sad to say but to a lot of bike shop people as long as you can stand over the bike it "fits".
There are a couple of "systems" for fitting bikes. IIRC the first one was called the "Fit Kit" but there are several around now. It would probably be best if he could find a shop that offered fitting using one of these systems but it still needs to be tempered by taking the rider (50+ remember?) into account.
One of my friends recently went thru a fitting like this after 30+ years of riding and he said it was still worthwhile.