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Jun 2020
2:32pm, 8 Jun 2020
1,870 posts
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RunningRonnie
My wife wants to buy a new bike and has her heart set on a roadlite from Canyon. They are really limited in stock at the moment and her ideal bike (Women's Medium) will not be in stock for at least 8 weeks. This is based on her height and inside leg measurement. however, if she takes 1cm off of her height it now recommends a medium. Her other option is a Unisex/men's bike, which the site recommends XS.
On asking Canyon, they have advised the following: "for a road bike, if you are on the cusp of sizes we generally recommend sizing down as it is easier to make a small bike feel bigger than the other way around." Although, they have said road bike, it is a hybrid that she is looking at.
I'm tempted to tell her to go for the Small in the Women's frame... what do you think?
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Jun 2020
2:37pm, 8 Jun 2020
1,871 posts
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RunningRonnie
Sorry, meant to say that it recommended a small if she changes her height by 1cm.
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Jun 2020
7:54pm, 10 Jun 2020
2 posts
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Argos74
The downside of a bike being too small is the feeling of crunched up and forced into a more upright position. In her position, I'd wait for the bike in the right size. Worth also having looking at the sizing and geometry on the current bike, how well that fits, and how the different sized Roadlites compare.
When I was buying a new bike last year, the Roadlite CF made the final shortlist of 2, eventually went for something with more tyre clearance. It does seem a very nice bike indeed.
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Jun 2020
8:44am, 13 Jun 2020
1,604 posts
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oumaumau
I tend to go the other way. I like a small bike - within reason obviously. There's generally only a few cm difference in any direction of geometry between frames, which can generally be made up with a drifted seat/longer stem.
Unless the intention is to do big miles I doubt your wife would appreciate the difference, but might enjoy the (marginal) weight saving
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Jun 2020
3:59pm, 13 Jun 2020
1,904 posts
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MudMeanderer
As long as it's not a long way off, it's generally quite easy to adapt a small bike for a slightly larger rider, by putting a longer stem on, or raising the saddle.
There are things to be aware of, though. Reach and stack are typically considered the important measurements when comparing frames.
Reach is nominally how far the bars are in front of the saddle (not the strict definition, but effectively what it shows). If it's longer than ideal then you'll feel stretched and uncomfortable. If it's too short, you'll feel bunched up and again uncomfortable. Within reason it can be sorted by changing the stem, but ideally not by more than a couple of centimetres. It's also very important to check if comparing men's and women's frames, as men's frames often have a longer reach at a given frame size.
Stack is the height of the front of the bike, compared to the bottom bracket. If a smaller frame has a much lower stack, it may put more weight on your arms, altering comfort and handling. You can have spacers under the bars to raise them a little, but too many can be too flexible (and looks horrible!).
So that's the overview. It's also worth thinking, although you can change components to achieve the desired fit, are you happy to do so yourself? If not, by the time you've got a non-ideal frame and booked it into a LBS (who also have some long backlogs currently) to be tweaked, it may not be much quicker than waiting for the ideal size. Just a thought.
I'll go and have a look at the geometry charts for those frames if I have a few mins.
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Jun 2020
6:17pm, 13 Jun 2020
1,872 posts
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RunningRonnie
Thanks. We ordered the small as the website had her very close to either one. 8 weeks was the minimum time, but they couldn't actually give an accurate figure. By that time, the summer would be over and she'd have missed out on taking it when we go away.
She's likely to be doing reasonably short rides mainly, so I'm sure it'll be fine.
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Buying a basic bike - advice?
Aug 2019