wseaton

After almost 20 years I've got back into biking, mostly for fitness. I do almost entirely in town biking, and being in my 40's and lazy for the past couple years could lose some weight, but I've been riding hard on borrowed bikes for the past couple months and liking the progress. Already building a fair amount of stamina. I just need a decent bike in a decent price range.

I'm 5'11 and have short legs. I wear dress pants that are 29-30" if that shows how short my legs are. Oddly when I adjust the seat on most bikes to my liking it's higher than other people who are taller than me. I guess I like long leg leg extension, but typically need a frikken to ladder to get on a bike once it's adjusted right. Back in HighSchool I had a classic Schwinn Continental, which fit me perfect. Bike was crap since it weighed a ton and had trash gears. My dad gave me his 70's era powder blue Schwinn World Voyager that he had custom wide ratio gears installed and that thing was bliss. The Voyager accelerated like a rocket due to it's light weight (for the era), wide gears and felt like an extension of your body. Unfortunately it was stolen not long after.

I've currently been riding a friends Glacier Point, which is one of those 'Walmart' bikes that suck in all respect except one - with the seat raised high it's a reasonably comfortable ride. I've tried local bike shops and not liking anything much. Including the sales guys who are 25 years younger and trying to push their preference on me so I bail before I can really browse around. Most bikes I've tested in shops make me feel too crouched over. My back isn't straight but bent trying to reach the front bars and I feel like I'm going to dive into a pool. Buddy of my mine more into biking said I preferred the 'longer, more classic wheel base and a bit more elevated riding stance', but not sure if he's correct. I also like a REALLY low bottom gear because I live in a hilly area, but I assume that's something I might be able to get with a change of the rear Cassette and a triple up front? Any advice appreciated, especially from somebody with a similiar build and preference as mine.

CliffordK

Are you looking for a road bike or something else? Hybrid?

The classic config of road bikes is to set the seat and bars at about the same height, but many "racing" bikes have a small frame and the seat significantly higher than the bars. The average middle-aged rider probably doesn't need the super-low bars.

If you have short legs, you probably have a fairly long torso, so the longer frames may be comfortable, or perhaps just a longer handlebar stem, thus a larger frame.

My latest bike build put drop bars and 700c wheels onto a 26" Litespeed MTB frame. It did have a fairly aggressive bar position, but the MTB frame was slightly longer than the average road frame of the same size, and seemed to be a good fit.

fietsbob

5'11 aint short , Napoleon was short.

yes size the frame for your legs, have the Shop change the stem to fit your upper body , that can be done at point-of-sale.


if you feel a need to have the seat closer to the ground, a Crank Forward Cruiser it the way to go ..
it Aint a go fast design.. get over that..

Also lowering BB height , is a frame design choice , Low and you hit the pedal into the corner,
unless you stop pedaling , and raise the pedal to the inside of the corner .

Time to go Visit a few Bike Shops..

TenSpeedV2

Welcome my fellow turtle body brother. I am slightly taller than you at almost 6'0" and have the same inseam. We are built like turtles. All body with these short stubby legs. That being said, I am on a 58cm frame on both bikes, and take a 19" in a mountain bike. It sounds like you are aiming more for absolute comfort over anything, so I would suggest trying out a hybrid of some sort from your LBS. A proper fitting bike will be comfortable. It really depends on what type of riding you are wanting to do.

jade408

I can't help you with the short legs thing. But you'll be pretty upright if your handlebars are positioned at or above your seat. Rivendell Bikes have really good advice around this and how to setup and existing bike (change the handlebar and stem). Mine is set up with the seat about an inch above my seat and is great!

katsrevenge

Many women's specific bikes are set up for longer arms/shorter legs. Might want to consider one of those. Half the time they look the same these days.

wseaton

I followed Tenspeeds advice and focused my attention on hybrids, and visited a local albeit further drive bike shop with a reputable staff. To my utter delight the sales guy was built nearly identical to me and knew my dilema. We looked at a bunch of bikes and I test road several, but rapidly gravitated towards a 2015 Cannondale Quick with an XL frame. It's funny because looking at my dimensions he initially steered me towards smaller frames, and I simply didn't like the feel. Bike felt like a toy. When I tried the XL frame it fit like a glove and the bike responds superbly. Only negative is I'm still getting used to newer bikes conducting every pebble and road crack compared to cheap steel bikes. They gave me a deal on the bike for $600, and checking online prices I think they did me good.

CliffordK

Good luck with your new bike.

As far as bumps, you can do a lot by playing around with tire pressure and tire size. Do you have 28's on your bike? Depending on your weight and your propensity to run over big stuff, you could probably lower the PSI to 80? More? Less? Even a bit lower with 32 or 35mm tires.

Also try to keep the arms bent a bit.

TenSpeedV2

This really should happen more often.

Congrats on the purchase, and be sure to post back with some pictures of the bike. You cannot buy a new bike and not post pictures of it. That is blasphemy.