Hello Everyone,

I just signed on to this forum in hopes to help from people much more experienced than myself. I just bought a closeout 2004 Giant OCR-2 from a local bike shop here in IL. I am approx. 6 feet tall with an inseam of 32 inches. The owner told me that normally my leg size would be a medium, BUT being that my torso is so long, I had to go up to a large. This does not seem to be bothersome to me, however having never been on a road bike before, I do not know for sure. The only thing that I can say is different about my bike set-up versus other bikes totally set-up is that other seats seem to be adjusted higher than the handlebars whereas mine is about even with the handlebars.

Also, I am brand new to this cycling thing, any recommendations as far as training for beginners.


Thanks In Advance,
NATE

It's something of a moot point, I find it more comfortable to have them roughly even, my seat is maybe an inch lower and I want to find a higher stem to be able to raise it that last bit. Basically there should be very little weight resting on your hands while you are riding and having most of your weight supported by your legs as well as the sit bones.

I have my bars even with the seat but it is a comfort that I like. Good Luck Nice bike.

No problem to start out that way and as you become more familiar with riding and general bike fit practice, you can make adjustments to accommodate your personal requirements. It's a continuing process. I've been riding regularly since the late 90's and I'm still making minor adjustments to keep pace with ability progressions.

Good luck and enjoy your riding.

I am 5'10" with a 33 inseam, which it sounds like is pretty average from reading other poster's measurements on these forums. You seem to have a longer than normal torso, so I would think that you would want to, in general, look for bikes with longer top tubes compared to the seat tube or change the stem out with one longer. You might want to get your fit checked because it sounds like the sales guy just wanted to make a sale. A good sales guy, from my experience, would normally recommend a different bike with a longer top tube vice just telling you to go to the next size larger. I'm not saying your bike doesn't fit, but you might consider looking into it and seeing if you fit is optimum for you. However, It may fit, and the sales guy might have placed you well, but it just sounds fishy to me.

As far as the drop to the bars, that will improve over time as your flexibility improves. My drop has gone from even to minus 4" in the 4 years I have been riding a road bike.