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How do you determine older MTB size from pics?

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How do you determine older MTB size from pics?

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Old 07-28-13, 02:46 PM
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How do you determine older MTB size from pics?

With road bikes, it's easy to see what size they are from pictures on CL ads. But how can you tell what size older rigid mountain bikes are? Thanks.
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Old 07-28-13, 03:10 PM
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Looking at the head tube doesn't help so much with an MTB. I look at the seat stays and seat relative to the 26" rear wheel. With practice, it is pretty easy to figure out if you have a 14, 16, 18, or 20 incher that way. Sure some frames are 17 or 19, but if it's in between the even numbers, no big deal.

Also, I can cheat, because I have a garage full of projects in various sizes as a reference point!

Oddly, I've spent two weeks looking for a 14" woman's MTB priced at $75 or less without success.
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Old 07-28-13, 09:24 PM
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Originally Posted by oddjob2

Oddly, I've spent two weeks looking for a 14" woman's MTB priced at $75 or less without success.
It took me a long time to find a higher end vintage mtb in that small of a size for my wife. I ended up buying two framesets on ebay, and building them up from there (not a cheap option for sure). Actually the ones I bought were a 14.5 inch 1994 Trek 950, and a 15 inch 1992 Paramount Series 70. Both were the smallest size the model came in.

It took me a year to find the Paramount. Now my requirements were VERY specific, I wanted a 1992 Paramount series mtb, the higher the series, the better (top two were a 90 and a 70).

Needless to say, I have more than $75 into either bike.

I have a buyer begging me to find another small MTB for them and do a road conversion on it. I cannot find a good one at a reasonable cost.


On bike sizing, I'm pretty good at judging road bike sizes, but I suck at estimating mtb sizes.
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