Bike sizing - new vs old

J

jawry

Likes Dirt
G'day all,

After a bit of advice on bike sizing.

For the record - I'm 5' 9'" (175cm?) and currently riding a 2008 medium size santa cruz heckler with a 70mm stem. Top tube on the medium is listed at 571.5mm. 20 years riding and like steep, rough and fast. Love the 'poppy' nature of the heckler - loves to jump and duck and dive.

I see that most 'modern' mediums have top tubes in the order of mid/high 580's - low 600's.

I'm a fan of single pivots and have my eye on a good condition Santa Cruz Butcher - trouble is that its a size large with a TT length listed at 596.9mm.

With a shorter stem (35-50mm) will this present too much of an issue? Is TT length the measurement I should be concerned with?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Yep, would love to pony up for a brand new bike - but the budget is not that healthy and besides - I still love 26".

cheers'

Iain
 
stirk

stirk

Burner
If you like the agility of the old medium frame bike i'm guessing a medium would still be the best fit for you now.

What kind of reach do your arms have?
 
F

fragile

Squid
I'm of the opinion that top tube length is a nearly useless measure for how a bike fits- it's one of those distances that is affected by too many other things to reveal much if taken in isolation.

My preferred method now is the distance from bb to bar clamp- for me, this relates much more to how large or small a given bike will feel.

If you like to ride "steep, fast and rough" you will almost certainty be happier with a 50mm stem over a 70 too, I didn't get on with those ultra-short 30mm jobbies back in the day but you might, you could give that a go if a large w/ 50mm felt too stretched out.

Final thought, handling is reasonably independent of size. My jump bike is within 20mm of my trailbike/hardtail in the bb-barclamp measurement, less if bar rise was taken into account, but the two ride nothing alike- the most important difference here is the higher bb of the jump bike, this alone makes it soooo much easier to manual/bunnyhop it isn't funny.
 
ozzybmx

ozzybmx

taking a shit with my boobs out
~Same height at 176cm, I have always just bought a Med (54cm road and CX) and just ridden it without any issues. If the ETT is around 600mm its usually good.

With there being a different bike for every trail these days, I dont read too much into geometry.

The only thing to watch for is some manufacturers call a bike a Med when its a Large with others, Pivot and BH are 2 of them that size big.
 
MARKL

MARKL

Eats Squid
I agree with Fragile that TT is almost totally irrelevant. The more useful measurement for a mountain bike is 'reach' and 'stack' which most manufacturers are listing now. Irrespective of this most manufacturers have moved to a longer 'reach' measurement these days as people have moved to shorter stems, wider bars etc.

For interest sake I recently rode a more modern bike with a stack measurement about 50mm longer than my current bike (2009 Intense SS) both sized large. Riding back to back I jumped on the new bike and it felt almost exactly the same as my current bike...but when I got on my current bike it felt short. Having ridden the longer bike I am really keen to try an XL and go even longer.
 
F

fallingwater

Likes Bikes
Same old, same old. For the benefit of those that think 27" wheels are SO much better

The Butcher looks pretty much like a Heckler with a different suspension design, so the biggest difference between a medium and large will be the extended wheelbase (which isn't bad for stability at speed)
Otherwise it all should feel similar with a 20-30mm shorter stem, I'd imagine.

You may run into trouble getting a dropper post as low as you may need on the large frame due to the length of the seat tube.
 
J

jawry

Likes Dirt
stirk said:
If you like the agility of the old medium frame bike i'm guessing a medium would still be the best fit for you now.

What kind of reach do your arms have?
Click to expand...
I can reach my arse to scratch it :)

Average reach I guess - have never really measured myself or others to know what's normal.

Thanks to everyone for the replies - on balance I think i'll stay a medium.

Cheers,

iain
 
Warp

Warp

Likes Dirt
Medium here too at 174cm. 580-600 indeed are sweet spot for me.

Two things happened. 27.5 wheels and short stems/wide bars.

I'd stick to a medium in your shoes unless you have long arms or torso.
 
v1llage1d1ot

v1llage1d1ot

Likes Dirt
I had a medium blur lt, I felt it was a little short. I have moved to a large Bronson. Seems pretty good to me. I did however sit on a mates medium nomad, and perhaps that would have been the size. I'm much the same height as you. It's pretty hard to tell without actually riding a bike I think
 
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