Originally Posted by vincenzosi
I'd love to know how we as a group arrived at the conclusion that "a majority of people riding road bikes are riding the wrong size." A statistic to back that up would be good. I'd also like to know what categorizes "wrong" size, seeing as we obviously have insight into every single person's "right" size after saying it's subjective.
The pleasant folks at Rivendell have a nice giggle when they state "We put people on bikes that are took big for them," referring to the former fashion of large-ish frames with relatively short (for the seat tube length) top tubes, and handle bars set at or near the level of the saddle. They prefer that to the current fashion of "compact" frames with long-ish (for the seat tube length) top tubes, long seat posts, and handle bars set as much as 3-4 inches below the level of the saddle.
While I feel more comfortable with the Rivendell ethos and ride a bike fitted that way, a larger share of the folks I know who ride with any frequency seem happy enough with their compact frames and more aggressive posture. I happily don't have to ride their bikes, and they don't seem to feel deprived of the pleasure of riding mine, so I'm not seeing anything here to get so prickly about. If you like the stretched out deep-in-the-drops posture, great. If you like riding more upright and maybe going a little slower, that's great too. "Can't we all just [ride] along?"
Happy Thanksgiving, all you cycling turkeys. I got in a 14 mile ride before dinner today.