On Wednesday, July 31, 2013 4:12:22 PM UTC-4, Jim Thill - Hiawatha Cyclery wrote: > > What constitutes a "fistful", and why does such an arbitrary dimension > lead us around by the short hairs? Can't we go 2 cm either way and still > have an approximate fistful? I would say that in general, with Long Haul > Truckers and Cross-checks, go one size down from the Riv recommendation > simply because the way the two brands measure frame size is slightly > different.
I dunno.... I guess "fistful" is what you end up with for seatpost exposure when you subtract ~17cm from your saddle height and get your frame size, since that is what Rivendell/Grant recommends<http://www.rivbike.com/kb_results.asp?ID=41>, a "fistful", and that is the way he recommends arriving at it. I'm sure you could go 2cm either way under this system, but this post began about a guy being sold a frame that was 4cm too small for him by his own estimation, and that of his friend (the OP, Ian). He wanted a 62, and the shop was adamant that he should ride a 58. In this case I'd guess Grant's and Ian's sizing system/recommendation have served him well. Also, Surly measures their Crosscheck and LHT frame sizes *exactly* the same way Rivendell measures theirs: Center-to-top (i.e., top of TT). My better half owns one of the early crosschecks which is sitting in our living room, and this is how it's measured/sized. You'll still have an approximate fistful (depending on the size of your > fist), and the bike will better approximate the fit of the recommended Riv > size. The geometries of the 58cm LHT and 58cm Atlantis are virtually identical, so I'd guess if you wanted your LHT to fit approximately like an Atlantis (as the Riv chart recommends sizing it), you'd couldn't get any closer than by purchasing the same size. Sure the BB is spec'd at 2mm higher on the LHT <http://surlybikes.com/bikes/disc_trucker/geometry>, with a 78mm drop rather than 80mm of the Riv, but I don't reckon that makes an appreciable difference in how big the bike feels. Matt If you measure a LHT the same way you measure an Atlantis, a 56 LHT is more > equivalent to a 58 cm Atlantis. I had a 58 Atlantis for years, but a 58 > Trucker felt big to me. > > On Wednesday, July 31, 2013 7:38:53 AM UTC-5, Matt Beebe wrote: >> >> "Buying a Surly using the Riv sizing guideline apples-to-apples is quite >> likely to result in a bike that's on the too-big side. " >> >> I could see that if you aimed for a fistful of seatpost on a >> Karate-Monkey, you'd end up with a bike that is too big. But it seems >> the Cross-check and LHT have similar geometries to say a Quickbeam or >> Atlantis, and could be sized using the basic Rivendell guidelines of >> seat-height minus 17cm or so. In my experience, they could, and it would >> not result in a bike that is too big at all. >> >> >> On Wednesday, July 31, 2013 8:17:53 AM UTC-4, Jim Thill - Hiawatha >> Cyclery wrote: >>> >>> All Cross-checks in all sizes come out of the box with 300 mm steerers. >>> With a 62 cm frame, there is nothing to cut off because the head tube is >>> long enough to allow a stem and maybe an inch or two of spacers. The old >>> Surly warranty stipulated that stem plus spacers shouldn't exceed 100 mm, >>> but last year they changed that, and now they say there is no limit on >>> steerer length. But this is important: with threaded steerers, the size of >>> the frame determines how high you can get the bars. If you want high bars, >>> get a big frame. This is the Rivendell way. This advice is completely >>> worthless with threadless steerers like Surly uses, because all sizes can >>> have the same handlebar height if you don't cut the steerer. So a 52 cm >>> frame can theoretically fit exactly the same as a 58 cm frame if the stem >>> length is long enough to make up the difference. Buying a Surly using the >>> Riv sizing guideline apples-to-apples is quite likely to result in a bike >>> that's on the too-big side. >>> >>> I will tell you that uncut steerers with a lot of spacers tend to get a >>> lot of negative commentary. Our Surly floor bikes usually sport this >>> feature, and everyday somebody asks me to justify it or comments that they >>> don't like the look. Yet of the bikes that sell, only a small fraction come >>> back to have the steerer shortened. >>> >> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
