…that was easy.

56 to 59cm ST. But how is knowing my nominal frame size going to help you know yours?

The STs are different lengths, but I sure don't recall what they are. The important point is that I've made them all comfortable by selecting a suitable stem length. Then with adjustments to saddle position and handlebar height I've made them all nice to ride.

They feel different. The two that feel the longest are the tandem and the UO8. (I'm shorter than I was when I bought the UO8 43 years ago.) The shortest feeling is the Masi, but then that's the 56cm. I've never figured out how much of the difference is my position and shape on the bike vs. the frame geometry vs. the gearing, etc. But it doesn't matter. When I hop on a bike I haven't ridden in a while it may feel odd at first but within a mile it feels exactly right. The nominal 58cm Bianchi is the only one which feel exactly right immediately every time I get on it.

But I still don't see how this will help you.

My best top tube + stem reach is 680mm. I like good forward to rearward balance so that I can readily lift my hands while pedaling with medium effort.

I don't vary much from that. All of my bikes are set up within a few mm's of that range, with some variation of saddle-to-bar drop depending on what the bike is designed to do.

I would add that modern frame dimensions are strangely disproportional. You must measure everything and not rely on the *size* quoted by the marketing department...

That's the way I feel with my mountain bikes. I have two, an old 26" rigid and a modern 29er hardtail, with very different setups as far as bar width, shifters, disc brakes vs. cantilevers, etc. When I haven't ridden one in a while the bike feels awkward at first, but within 10 minutes it's like my favorite bike ever.


I wasn't so much interested in what everyone's exact frame sizes were (Christmas is a long way off ), but I was curious what the range of sizes others have gotten to work for them. Some of the responses were fairly specific, either no variation or only a couple of centimeters, others seem to be able to ride bikes in a 5-6 cm range. As someone mentioned above, in the '70's there may have only been 3 frames sizes to pick from spaced 3 or more cm apart. With higher end frames sometimes coming in 1cm increments it made me wonder how experienced cyclists felt about what their ideal size is, whether a centimeter difference was a big deal.