Frame size for 6'9" rider?

I want to buy a mountain bike for light use, roads and trails. The
problem I'm having is that I have a 38" inseam, and every shop I've
been to says I need a larger frame than they stock. They want me to
order a larger (e.g. 24") bike without trying it out first. Or they
suggest (the specialty bike places, especially) that I need a custom
frame.

Is it really that bad to ride a smaller bike, if it feels comfortable?
Some stores say it's just inefficient, some say I'll injure myself.
Others say that a bike in my price range ($400) won't have parts good
enough to handle my weight (255-260).

Anyone have any advice? I can't believe that it's this hard to buy a
bike...

-- Alan

P.S. I already have a road bike with a 25" frame. Not efficient, but
hasn't injured me yet either.

Alan Mazer wrote:

I want to buy a mountain bike for light use, roads and trails. The
problem I'm having is that I have a 38" inseam, and every shop I've
been to says I need a larger frame than they stock. They want me to
order a larger (e.g. 24") bike without trying it out first. Or they
suggest (the specialty bike places, especially) that I need a custom
frame.

Is it really that bad to ride a smaller bike, if it feels comfortable?
Some stores say it's just inefficient, some say I'll injure myself.
Others say that a bike in my price range ($400) won't have parts good
enough to handle my weight (255-260).

Anyone have any advice? I can't believe that it's this hard to buy a
bike...

Alan, it is not hard to buy a bicycle. It is just expensive to get one
that fits IF you are taller than 6'4". I have a 1974 Peugeot with an
offset (and extended) seat post that I have driven since - well, 1974. Not
totally comfortable, but it works for commuting, etc.

I spent a bit of cash getting a bicycle built to "fit me" with a touring
frame "style". Because of the trip I will be doing, I went with 26"
wheels. The hubs have 48 spokes..... Now you must understand that this
bicycle will be for long distance self-supported touring in outback
Australia. Redundancy is important there.

OTOH, I use my Peugeot for commuting here. I also bought a Chinese made
bicycle at a garage sale ($20) that is also used for commuting. I had
another extended seat post with setback built by a welder for $5. It
works. It is heavy. So what?? I am not using any of my bicycles for
anything else besides transport and weight reduction/fitness. The parts
work fine - even but the wheel rims on the Chinese-made bicycle are
steel.

Ken

Per Alan Mazer:
I want to buy a mountain bike for light use, roads and trails. The
problem I'm having is that I have a 38" inseam, and every shop I've
been to says I need a larger frame than they stock. They want me to
order a larger (e.g. 24") bike without trying it out first. Or they
suggest (the specialty bike places, especially) that I need a custom
frame.

Is it really that bad to ride a smaller bike, if it feels comfortable?
Some stores say it's just inefficient, some say I'll injure myself.
Others say that a bike in my price range ($400) won't have parts good
enough to handle my weight (255-260).

I'm not quite as long, but I'm beyond "XL".

My experience is that I could ride an off-the-shelf frame that was coerced into
fitting (extra-high riser bars, setback saddle) and it certainly didn't do any
damage.

In fact, I went though a number of fairly-expensive bikes in that manner.

Then I threw myself on the tender mercies of Seven Cycles and found out what a
diff a properly-fitting frame can make. If you've never ridden a frame that
fits, no problem - you'll never know.... but once you've had one you know how
much better it handles.

If my wife ever finds out how much money I spent on a custom frame, I'm dead
meat... but the truth is that I'd be substantially ahead of the game money-wise
if I'd gone to Seven Cycles on Day 1.

I'm not touting Seven as the end-all-do-all, but they're the ones I picked. At
the time it seemed like *any* custom FS was going to cost me at least two grand.
One maker didn't respond. The other I found, I didn't care for the aesthetics
of the frame, and that left me with Seven for "only" 25-30% more.

Google a little, and you'll find a couple of guys who specialize in frames for
the long and tall. I think I recall reading that one of them is even 6' 9"
tall - it was on his home web page.
--
PeteCresswell

You will not regret going to more effort or a modest increase in
expense in order to get a bike that fits you better than what's on the
rack on your LBS. I have had to adapt every bike I've ever owned
(except for the one I had custom made), and I can assure you that it is
much, much easier to do if the bike is reasonably close to the right
size to begin with.

every shop I've been to says I need a larger frame than they
stock. They want me to order a larger (e.g. 24") bike without
trying it out first.

So try the 21" versions of the bikes that you can get in the 24" size.
If you like one of them, you will like the 24" version even better. If
you get a 24" MTB, you may not need to do anything more to it than
replace the flat bars with 4" to 6" tall riser bars to get a pretty
decent fit. That's pretty cheap and easy compared to the alternatives
for a shorter bike.

Is it really that bad to ride a smaller bike, if it feels comfortable?

It won't feel comfortable for long, so you probably won't ride it for
long. You'll ride faster, farther, longer and more comfortably on an
appropriately sized bike than you would on one that's too small.

Anyone have any advice? I can't believe that it's this hard to buy a
bike...

OK, consider it like buying a pair of pants. If you really want some
right now, and you can't get any with a 38" inseam, you might consider
buying some with a 37" inseam and seeing whether you can have the hems
let out a bit. But you wouldn't buy pants with a 33" inseam just
because that's all the store had in stock.

P.S. I already have a road bike with a 25" frame. Not efficient, but
hasn't injured me yet either.

That's a much taller bike than a 21" or 22" MTB. I use a couple of
road bikes that size (I'm about your height) and with very tall, long
stems they work reasonably well. You won't be able to find a
commercially available bar and stem combination that gives you a good
fit on a 21" bike.

Chalo Colina

Alan Mazer wrote:
I want to buy a mountain bike for light use, roads and trails. The
problem I'm having is that I have a 38" inseam, and every shop I've
been to says I need a larger frame than they stock. They want me to
order a larger (e.g. 24") bike without trying it out first. Or they
suggest (the specialty bike places, especially) that I need a custom
frame.

Is it really that bad to ride a smaller bike, if it feels comfortable?
Some stores say it's just inefficient, some say I'll injure myself.
Others say that a bike in my price range ($400) won't have parts good
enough to handle my weight (255-260).

What they were probably talking about is that many of the bikes at that
price level don't have double wall rims, and a few don't have cassette
hubs. You need both if this is going to be a bike that's actually going
to get ridden, especially off-road. If this is what the salespeople
were trying to steer you away from, they were doing a good thing.

Anyone have any advice? I can't believe that it's this hard to buy a
bike...

-- Alan

P.S. I already have a road bike with a 25" frame. Not efficient, but
hasn't injured me yet either.

Alan Mazer wrote:
I want to buy a mountain bike for light use, roads and trails. The
problem I'm having is that I have a 38" inseam, and every shop I've
been to says I need a larger frame than they stock. They want me to
order a larger (e.g. 24") bike without trying it out first. Or they
suggest (the specialty bike places, especially) that I need a custom
frame.

Is it really that bad to ride a smaller bike, if it feels comfortable?
Some stores say it's just inefficient, some say I'll injure myself.
Others say that a bike in my price range ($400) won't have parts good
enough to handle my weight (255-260).

Anyone have any advice? I can't believe that it's this hard to buy a
bike...

-- Alan

P.S. I already have a road bike with a 25" frame. Not efficient, but
hasn't injured me yet either.

I'm only 6'3" with a 36" inseam, 215 pounds, so my experiences may not
be entirely applicable, but here's my 2 cents worth:

As big a frame as you can get in a $400 bike will be fine. The
components being able to stand up to your weight is a different story.
In that price range, I'd expect some things to fail reasonably quickly.
You may need an extra long seat post, so I'd get as high a quality one
as is practical. Seatpost failure is not a pretty sight. Same for the
stem and bars.

There is nothing wrong with riding a bike a bit too small if you are
comfortable. That you would injure yourself is preposterous. I assume
since it is a $400 bike, you are just interested in having fun and
seeing if you like MTB'ing, and performance isn't really an issue. If I
were you, I'd get the $400 bike that more or less fits, swap the
seatpost and stem, and go ride. If stuff breaks you know what needs to
be heavy duty on your next bike.

If you get hooked on MTB'ing, you can get a custom bike someday, and
keep the $400 one as a reserve bike, whatever.


Nashbar has a steel MTB frame size 23" for only $69.99. For a budget
MTB, I'd get one of those, and use a mix of Deore components with an LX
crank. Hydraulic discs all the way with your weight. Forget rim-brakes.
Also 36 hole 3x laced wheels. It would be hard to get under $600, but
the extra would be worth it if you ask me.

Good luck!

Joseph

Alan Mazer wrote:
I want to buy a mountain bike for light use, roads and trails. The
problem I'm having is that I have a 38" inseam, and every shop I've
been to says I need a larger frame than they stock. They want me to
order a larger (e.g. 24") bike without trying it out first. Or they
suggest (the specialty bike places, especially) that I need a custom
frame.

Is it really that bad to ride a smaller bike, if it feels comfortable?
Some stores say it's just inefficient, some say I'll injure myself.
Others say that a bike in my price range ($400) won't have parts good
enough to handle my weight (255-260).

Anyone have any advice? I can't believe that it's this hard to buy a
bike...

-- Alan

P.S. I already have a road bike with a 25" frame. Not efficient, but
hasn't injured me yet either.


I'm 6'10", 230 lb. and have gone through all this, since I've been doing
a lot of road & off-road riding for the past 10 years.

You are right at the limit of being fitted with off-the-shelf stuff.
Mountain bikes (and now road bikes) aren't made in many frame sizes, so
the tall and short are harder to fit.

It's not bad to ride a smaller bike if it feels comfortable -- this is a
common practice among off-road riders, particularly.

Your weight isn't so much above average that standard components will
fail. Having the wheels properly set up is perhaps the most important
reliability factor. I've found even low-end mountain bike wheels to be
reliable at my weight, and I ride difficult trails at high speeds.

I've found that about the largest frame I'm able to get is 22" seat tube
and 24" top tube. Both of these being "center-to-center" measurements,
seat tube: center of crank spindle to center of top tube, top tube:
center of head tube to center of seat tube. Top tube length is the
critical dimension -- it's much easier to go "up" with various
extensions than to change the length.

You can get pretty long seat posts these days. 350mm is standard, 400mm
are common, I currently have a 425.

Handlebars can be swapped with "riser" bars, raised with a steer tube
extender (&/or tall stem), and the cockpit length can be increased with
a long reach stem. There are limits to this approach, and the bars will
typically be well below the saddle even after these changes. I prefer to
ride that way, so it works for me. A side effect of raising the saddle
and bars so much is to shift the weight backward a bit. Longer
chainstays are helpful to prevent creating a "wheelie" bike, but most
the fashion these days is minimal chainstay length. I haven't found
weight distribution to be a severe issue, but it's something to keep an
eye on.

I don't think your price range is unreasonable. I'm currently riding a
GT frame that I stripped from a entry-level ($300) bike. I could have
ridden the bike as it was if I swapped the seatpost ($25) and put on a
steerer extender ($20) and a high rise/reach stem ($25). I might have
had problems with the entry-level suspension fork, but those are pretty
beefy, if heavy and clunky. The flip side is a custom frame, which
typically start well over $1,000. I'm sure a custom would give you a
better fit, I'm not sure how much better. If that's a non-starter due to
budget, then you just need to find a shop that's knowledgeable about all
the setup tricks -- I was lucky enough to have a great local shop to get
me going.