JonathanGennick 

I'm thinking of ordering a Specialized Tricross. I'm uncertain though, as to sizing. I've been riding 17-inch mountain bike frames from Specialized, and those fit me well. But the Tricross is more of a road-bike, and those seem to be sized completely differently from mountain bikes. I am 5' 8" tall, have 31.5" measured inseam (32, maybe, if I push up on the book really hard), and my current mountain bike is a 17 inch frame with a 591mm effective, horizonal top-tube. What size Tricross should I be looking at?

(Unfortunately, I have no opportunity to try a Tricross in person. That's why I'm throwing this question out to the forums. I'm thinking of taking a chance on one of the closeouts from Bicycle Warehouse.)

SaddleBags

FWIW - I ride a 54 road bike (54.5 TT) but ride a 52 S-Works Tricross frame. I think it's a 53 TT.
I'm about your size with a little shorter inseam (30"). I believe my Stumpjumper is a 17" too.

knobster

I've heard over and over again around here that you should go down a size in the Tricross. I have a 54cm road bike and a 56cm Tricross. They both fit quite well. I think you'd be fine with a 54cm.

JonathanGennick 

knobster, how tall are you? And is your Tricross really larger than your road bike?

flargle

Lennard Zinn's online fit calculator seems to work well:
https://www.zinncycles.com/FitIntro.aspx

I used it when I was shopping for a bike, and it jibed quite closely with the results from my fitting at the bike shop (based on the bikefitting.com system).

knobster

I'm 5'10". 32" inseam. Yeah, it is. I have a 54cm Trek 520 touring bike that it is close to the same size. The 56cm Tricross appears to have a more relaxed geometry so I would think you would need to go a size bigger than normal. I rode a 54cm and it felt a little too cramped. The 56cm felt perfect.

reppans

+1

I'm 5'8", 30" pants inseam, have a 17" Ellsworth MTB, fit a 54 road bike and just bought 52 Tricross, a 54 would have been too big for me. Go to the Specialized website and check the geometry of Tricross against any of the Specialized road bikes and you'll find the stand over height of a 52 Tricross is equal to or taller than the 54 road bikes. The top tube is shorter, but you sound longer-legged and shorter-bodied that SaddleBags or I. Also, I bought the Tricross Comp Triple which has the Zertz/carbon seat post and you can only lower it so far (I have mine as low as possible). If the top tube feels a bit short, you probably have the LBS swap a longer stem for no charge (I did).

knobster

A 54cm might have worked for me fine, but the handlebars was a little too close. A different stem might have fixed that. The 56cm fits fine and what's funny is that I can put my foot down on this bike while sitting on the saddle and it's setup exactly like my road bike which I can't do that. Would really recommend you find a dealer to try it out. I found the geometry a little different that standard road bikes.