smaller bikes... say <= 54cm... appear to have gigantic saddles...

Honey, does this bike make my... no, we won't go there.

Small frames look great with small riders. Large frames look great with large riders. Small goes for medium rides and riders.

I rest my case.

Agreed.

No, it's definitely pointless. He's right that big folks ride big bike (and tend to think they look better). Smaller folks like smaller bikes and are drawn to the way they look.

In the days of yore, smallish boys and grown men would ride bikes with huge 28" wheels and tall seat tubes. Nowadays the Tour De France and other races have grown men buying bikes 5 or more cm too small for them, just to look more 'aero.' But aesthetics doesn't matter - fit does. It doesn't matter what you *think* looks good. What matters is the way it suits you and whether it rides well.

Yep, but I don't think a 5'11" woman should ever buy a dress made for a petite lady just because she thinks it looks better on the rack than the one in her size. This question is nonsense.

I love the look of 58cm frames... but that might be because I ride 58cm. It's more fun to look at a bike when the possibility of riding it is real!

Thank you for sharing.

+1 LeicaLad, elegance is somewhere in the middle.

somebody should chart human height range against most popular frame size to show what we already know. I ride 54cm, I think 56-58cm looks "most balanced", most proportional.

I ride a 51 cm, I think small bikes look strange and out of proportion. If I could I would ride much bigger bikes

Sure, I agree that the middle of the spectrum usually look best. Even so i've got 4 bikes that are all 61cm and some of them look more elegant than others... something between the size and geometry can either make magic or an ugly duckling. I'm 6 foot tall and anything but graceful... don't know why... just cause.

It's been my experience that if she actually rides it, it makes her... look pretty dam good.

i'm not gonna go commenting on short people with small bikes (logic dictates this, right?), but my eyes glance over anything smaller than a 61cm. 20grit's above is a beauty of proportionality.

My bikes on the other hand are just freakin huge:
27" Raleigh Marathon


But I think this 65cm Nobilette looks pretty good, even if it still is super tall:



But they fit me like a charm, so no complaints. My saddle comes up to a coworker's sternum. crazy.

The sweet spot seems to be between 56-58 cm frames. Smaller than that, the saddle looks too big, or the group too large.

Funny, I was getting ready to reply that 57-61cm generally does it for me from an aesthetic standpoint.

There's a reason a lot catalog photos and bikes for shows in the day were 56cm. That is the perfect proportion for a race bike. But of course, we ride what fits and IMO any bike between 52-62cm can look good with the proper set-up. Frames out of that range look freakish

I don't have much to add to this thread, but it does make sense that some companies switch to 26" tires below a certain frame size -- so they don't have to modify the geometry too much to accomodate 700C tires. It's too bad 28" (635mm rim) tires have fallen out of favor. Someone should work on re-popularizing them so the tall folks don't have to ride such goofy-looking bikes.

I'll put my vote in for 58 cm, which is a little smaller than my ideal size, assuming standard sized wheels (tubular/700c/27").

Smaller riders really should ride bikes with smaller wheels (note the plural, Georgena!). Here's my 1948 RRA and my wife's 1998 Bianchi Eros.

61cm Grandis

DrummerBoy1975, Because of the larger diameter tubing my Cannondales tend to look smaller than they are in photos. In the bike club there are some really large and really small cyclists, their bikes are definately out of the norm, but once the rider is riding, it all looks graceful.

Just for aesthetics I think a compact crankset looks better on a small frame (48-50 cm).

Brad

Yes Brad, I agreee, Cannondales are an exception.

Yes, big frames can look awkward. I ride 61-65, and sometimes have a hard time taking good looking pics of my bikes.


But there's details that can make these huge contraptions easier on the eye:

Definitely 700 wheels. None of my 650b conversions scored any aesthetic points!

Fenders. Makes the wheel diameter appear larger.

For photos jam the stem down the steerer racing style. Easy to do.

Big chainring needs to be truly big (53T+)

Old fashioned race bars, with sweet curves and big drop. Once took a profile shot of my 65cm Trek with tight rando bars. Ugh!

Aah, that's why I always like the pictures of your bikes and hate the way my 65cm+ bike pictures come out. I always take pictures of the way I ride em, I may need to do some staging next time.

I think the drop on my bars definitely helps. If I had gotten the standard drop It would've looked awkward. That said, that particular bike is the first one I've set up for riding hoods. I don't know that I really needed the deeper drops other than for aesthetic reasons.

Seems to me pretty much everybody likes the looks of their size bike. So what?

SP
Bend, OR
...64cm looks real nice to me.