biggs682
Touch it up and ride it
- Location
- Northamptonshire
Back in the day it seems we were always sold a size or two larger frame than we needed as according to the bike shop we would grow in to it !!
At 5ft 10" with a 31" inside leg and a passion for steel road bikes i always tend to find anything that is 22" - 24" frame size is rideable as long as i can get somewhere close to my ideal saddle height , bar height , reach distance and man bit clearance .
So when i was offered a fairly recent Scott S50 Speedster 61cm Road bike for a very good price i jumped at it . Upon getting it home and getting the tape measure out i find its quite a lot bigger in all the important areas to my norm .
I managed to get the saddle height where i wanted it easily enough by normal adjustment , bar height was about an inch and a half higher than normal , so a quick jiggle with the spacers and we were close enough for a few test rides .
I soon found my self with too much reach for riding on the hoods with the standard 110+ stem , some checking with the tape measure soon told me that i needed an 80mm stem for the ideal reach . Once the stems were swapped and the saddle shuffled along the rails we were ready for some testing .
A couple of daily commutes were done and it all felt good with no aches or pains i decided to try a couple of my normal 10 - 13 mile loops to see how they felt and they felt good .
So fast forward to this week and i have used the Scott for all of my non commuting rides and decided to use it for my early morning ride today and chose a route that gave me loads of options to turn homewards early if things felt wrong in the comfort department , thankfully all went well and i just carried on doing the full 43 mile loop .
Ok i now today's ride was a lot less than a lot of people ride but i normally find that after about 10 miles on an ill fitting bike i quickly get shoulder and neck pains .
Motto of the story is to keep plugging on to find out a comfortable riding position and dont be scared to try something different . Ok i now this wont work for a lot of people but it works for me .
ok so why i hear someone say are you selling it ? Answer is i cant keep them all and i still prefer a bike with full guards on for winter use .
At 5ft 10" with a 31" inside leg and a passion for steel road bikes i always tend to find anything that is 22" - 24" frame size is rideable as long as i can get somewhere close to my ideal saddle height , bar height , reach distance and man bit clearance .
So when i was offered a fairly recent Scott S50 Speedster 61cm Road bike for a very good price i jumped at it . Upon getting it home and getting the tape measure out i find its quite a lot bigger in all the important areas to my norm .
I managed to get the saddle height where i wanted it easily enough by normal adjustment , bar height was about an inch and a half higher than normal , so a quick jiggle with the spacers and we were close enough for a few test rides .
I soon found my self with too much reach for riding on the hoods with the standard 110+ stem , some checking with the tape measure soon told me that i needed an 80mm stem for the ideal reach . Once the stems were swapped and the saddle shuffled along the rails we were ready for some testing .
A couple of daily commutes were done and it all felt good with no aches or pains i decided to try a couple of my normal 10 - 13 mile loops to see how they felt and they felt good .
So fast forward to this week and i have used the Scott for all of my non commuting rides and decided to use it for my early morning ride today and chose a route that gave me loads of options to turn homewards early if things felt wrong in the comfort department , thankfully all went well and i just carried on doing the full 43 mile loop .
Ok i now today's ride was a lot less than a lot of people ride but i normally find that after about 10 miles on an ill fitting bike i quickly get shoulder and neck pains .
Motto of the story is to keep plugging on to find out a comfortable riding position and dont be scared to try something different . Ok i now this wont work for a lot of people but it works for me .
ok so why i hear someone say are you selling it ? Answer is i cant keep them all and i still prefer a bike with full guards on for winter use .
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