Originally Posted by
stewardmike03
What the shop might mean is that a 56 road bike and a 56 track bike are waaaay different. The difference is in the higher bottom bracket. Most, not all, of the time you will be more comfortable on a 2mm smaller, numerically, TRACK bike. Now this does NOT include a bike with road geometry set-up as a singlespeed. i.e. Jamis Sputkik vs. Fuji Track Pro. The track bike 56 will have a higher top tube than the 56 road bike. Ride both and decide for yourself. As long as you have a comfortable distance over the top tube and your junk isn't resting on it you'll be fine.
It's totally subjective and circumstantial.
My track bike is the same as my road bike yet I have more seatpost showing on my track bike and the bottom braket is higher
. That's because it has 170mm cranks as opposed to 180-185mm crank like my road bikes. Any smaller and I wouldn't be able to use my beloved campy seatpost (see above), with a track stem it has more than enough drop to get me way lower than my road bikes...
Also fixed gears on the road... why would you downsize? Presumably you want to ride this bike for longer periods of time than on the track and you might want to do a group ride, you will be dismounting regularly so you should keep that in mind. I think you would want to fit the same as your road bike, no? You are using it for the same type of riding... on the road, casual rides, etc... So why would you downsize? If your reason is that you ride only short distances in the city well maybe you should get a 3 speed, upright.