Sizing for Giant SCR - confused by LBS advice!

[Janeyb]

As some of you may have seen from my recent post, I am thinking about buying my first road bike as is hubbie. Not wanting too spend to much, we are looking at the Giant SCR 4. I wondered if someone could help as I've just been to a bike shop in Cambridge and am now very confused! Will try and be brief!

I am just under 5 ft 8" and hubbie is just under 5 ft 9". Chap in the shop straight away advised that we should go for large frame in the SCR. The confusion is that the SCR have this compact sizing! So the Large frame is 55.5 cm (conventional equivalent sizing is 58-60cm). The medium frame is 50 cm (conventional equivalent 55-57 cm). We tried both and both of us felt instantly more comfortable on the medium. The chap was adamant that large frame would be best for us both. We rode the large frame with the seat raised by about 8 cm out of the stem and both of us felt we were really stretching even to reach the hoods. We then tried the medium with the seat post raised about 15 cm out of the stem. It felt so much better! Until I tried the medium I had decided I wasn't even going to buy one as I didn't feel safe! Again, chap said it was just that we were used to flat bars on MTBs. So - any thoughts. Do you guys usually raise the seat and have the seat higher than the handlebars therefore leaning down? Sorry to be such a numpty but any advice greatly appreciated.

The problem is that we are taking advantage of huge discounts on cyclexpress to get the bikes at £250 instead of £350 so need to know what size to order and the offer finished tomorrow!

 

[Jaded]

I'm 6' 2" and I have the large frame.

 

[RedBike]

I'm 5-10" and used to ride a medium SCR. The large should be far too big for you. I think Giant recommend that you're 6ft+

Yes, the saddle should be higher than the bars.


just found a sizing guide
http://www.cyclestore.co.uk/contentPages.asp?pageID=61

 

[Joe24]

I'm 5"7 or 5"8 i think and i have the medium of the exact same bike and i still have some room for if i grow. Look on the link in my signature for some pics of it. The seat is higher then the stem by a decent amount. Althought if you go back through the pictures you will see how i went from the stem being higher and the seat beind low(when i was used to a flat bared bike) to getting used to the road bike and having the seat up high and the bars down as low as they can go.
Because its a compact road frame, you need to have a good amount of seatpost showing, unlike the old road frames where you could tell the size by just standing over the frame and seeing how much room was between your legs. The sat post does need o be taken up a tad more on the road bike still, but not by much. Someone in the club is taller then me and i think he has a med' frame size but on a different bike, might be slightly larger then mine, and he has alot of seatpost showing.

 

[Panter]

I'm 5' 11" or so (on a good day ) and I have a medium.

Seems about right to me, maybe slightly on the small side but the Large was too big

 

[Janeyb]

Thanks for that. I must admit the guy had such an attitude when we questioned his advice and made us think we were wrong but I reckon you have to go with what feels right. Going to try and put in our order on line and see if the discount codes Cyclexpress have sent us actually work. A £350 bike for £250. Very nice! Fingers crossed!

 

[dodgy]

Go back to the shop, sit on the bike with your feet on the pedals and your hands on the hoods and see if you can see the hub of the front wheel. If the bar is almost perfectly obscuring the hub, it's likely a good fit.

Dave.

 

[Steve Austin]

I'm 6' 2" and I have the large frame.

ditto

 

[Tynan]

without sounding harsh, if you're buying from cycle express, get advice from them

 

[Janeyb]

Did contact Cyclexpress on Saturday and explained the situation. The chap we spoke to said that he would not recommend a Large SCR for our height. The reason we went into the LBS is Cambridge is that we were a bit wary about buying from the internet without actually sizing the bike properly so had considered just buying from the shop instead. After the chaps awful advice, they lost our business anyway. His attitude didn't help. He virtually refused to sell us a medium frame! Strange! Cyclexpress were very good though.

 

[e-rider]

Well if you haven't bought the bike yet here is some advice.

All bike frame geometry varies to some extent ie. seat tube length, top tube length, BB height, head tube length, head angle, seat tube angle and so on.

It could be a case of this bike just not fitting your body shape and size - this is normal and you'll have to shop about to find a bike in the correct proportions to 'fit' your body. You may also need to change the handlebar stem to a shorter one etc.

Also - very important: there is a huge difference between the medium and large Giant SCR - it is very likely that you sit somewhere in between. Expensive frames generally increase in 1 cm jumps for this exact reason. Cheaper bikes are made so that as few sizes as possible are produced to keep the cost down.

Don't get hung up on this bike - if neither size feels that great try some other bikes; even try more expensive bikes just for size - you don't have to buy them - just try and see what the correct size for you is, then look for something in your budget similar in size and geometry.

Hope that helps.

 

[Steve Austin]

here it is from the Giant site. no more speculation needed

the only consideration now is that they do a M, M/L and a L. Feel free to pick the most appropiate

 

[punkypossum]

Well, here are the Tredz suggestions, and you would be a medium...(scroll down past the standard road bike sizing guide and it gives you the scr, fcr, etc.)

http://www.tredz.co.uk/SizingGuides.asp

 

[Janeyb]

The medium definitely felt comfortable.....have taken the plunge. It's my first road bike and I can't afford to spend a fortune as no idea if I will really take to it as have always been an MTBer primarily......although have found myself doing increasingly more on road stuff (20-30 milers) on my slicked up commuter MTB. We shall see! I'll keep you posted on my progress with the new steed!

 

[punkypossum]

Yes, keep us updated...if you have read my endless post in beginners I'm hoping to take the plunge into road-world soon, and the scr is definitely on my list of options!!!!