I recently purchased a bike which arrived at the LBS this week. It's a Raleigh Rush Hour 50cm. The shop owner had no objections about my height relation to this bike when I ordered it. Anyway, I did not pick it up because of a dent and they put in an order for another. I did however get a chance to stand over it and I'm not sure I'm tall enough. I am 5'2 with no shoes on. When i stood over it the top bar was touching. My optimal frame size is like 42cm right? My question is; When is it really too big?

5'2" w/ a 50cm sounds about right, unless you have disproportionately stumpy legs. When I stand over my bike (which is a tad on the big side for me) it bunches up the crotch of my pants a little. as long as you can stand over it with your feet flat on the ground, I wouldn't trip. Why don't you ride a different sized bike at your LBS to feel what is good for you?

Come to think of it, why didnt you just get them to measure you and order you one that fits?

42cm is for a circus midget

reach is more important. if you can stand over it, and get the bars a comfortable distance out/in in relation to the saddle, you're fine. the rest is preference.

That measuring bit did not occur to me. It didn't occur to the LBS guy either, he basically said 50cm is my size. These words make me feel a lot more at ease That is basically what happens to me over this bike. Thanks man for the info.

standover is overrated.
is the TT the right length with an appropriate stem?
does the HT length let you put the bars where you want without a huge stack of spacers or a ridiculous rise stem?

LOL!
From what I have read on how to measure yourself for a frame, this is what they say is my size hahaa. Maybe there is a circus in my future?

Or my girlfriend.

mcatano has a midget fetish!

ink1373, baxtefer: Thanks a bunch, I'll take this into consideration. I'm just so glad that bar touching thing is not a problem.

Well i guess if the frame ends up not fitting I can employ mcatano to build me one

You're dead to me.

kidding. I bet my GF is shorter than yours.

4'11"... shorter than Turd, even.

I win.

to some extent, yes. it's a silly way to size a frame, but i did sell one of the nicest bikes i've ever ridden because of lack of standover room. everything else fit beautifully, i just got sick of busting my nuts on the top tube.

when straddling the bike while wearing shoes, if you have zero space between your crotch and the top tube, get a smaller frame.

don't be afraid of using a stem with rise or a few headset spacers (though i agree that excess of either looks silly and should be corrected by riding a different frame size/geometry).

i'm 5'2" and one of my bikes is 51cm (the other is 48cm).
i don't have a problem with it.

best ballpark for frame sizing is:

your inseam (crotch to ground, not pant length) in centimeters x .65

that's a load of crap.

that puts me on a 55cm frame, which is about 4 sizes too small for me.

that's about up there with the circumference of your head method.

I'm 5' 11". Inseam is around 32". No idea what my reach is, but I feel just a *hair* over extended on a 54.5cm c to c top tube with 100mm stem. I just ordered a 53cm IRO. I also had a 55cm Pista for a while-- fit like a 57.

I think Bianchi measures by seat tube length, no?

LOL....

BTW baxtefer is right... why people still getting bikes thinking in the stand over? One of this days some company will came up with a top tube like a U backwards and how the curve will be super high everybody will get super small frames because the stand over will be over the average...

wonder what could happend if the tt is just the opposite, like a real U, then the stand over will be super low, then even midgets will get a frame size 60 because the stand over is the right one...

r u sure? I have 80 cms or so of inseam and if u do the multiplication i end up with a 52 cms frame? what the hell**********? im a 56 in the old steel times... r u sure????

it's pretty close to the "lemond formula", which suggests 2/3 * inseam. it works for me, but i have a long inseam relative to my height.

The difference between a 50cm and a 42cm is enormous.