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Starting to pick up biking, question about fitment

NaOH

NaOH

Diamond Member
My dad gave me a 2003 Trek 8500 hardtail as I wanted to get more cardio in but I hate just running. Plus, I wanna start doing some real trails sometime. The bike is awesome but one problem persists. It's about an inch or two too big for me. When I stand with the frame between my legs, it hits me in the crotch unless i stand on my tippy toes. When I'm on the bike, I'm fine, but that's because my seat is adjust to the about the same height as my handles. Also, my torso is pretty long so I guess having the seat higher wouldn't do me any good (except bring back pains). It feels comfortable on my routine rides around the city, and I guess the seat doesn't matter if I took it trailing. Is there anything really wrong with this setup? One option was to sell it and get a new one, but the new bike wouldn't be nearly as good as this bike (I see it onsale for about 600-800 ish, and it msrped for more than 3 times that amount).
 
Check craigslist for deals on a used bike that fits you.

No amount of adjustment will make a frame that's too big for you feel right.
 
Oh yeah, I'll mostly be riding it around the city as a means for exercise, transportation...etc.
 
When your foot is at the bottom of a pedal stroke what is the degree of bend in your knee? For road cycling your leg should be only slightly bent at the bottom of the pedal stroke. For mountain biking I see guys with lower seats but I always found that I got the best power if my seat was higher...more like on a road bike.
 
You gotta have enough standover room so you don't hurt yourself when you come to a stop. Some like an inch or two of room between their junk and the top tube, but I don't see that as a requirement. In a crash I'm ejected anyway, and not racking myself.

Standover isn't my main measure of the fit of a mountain bike, the effective top tube measurement is.

In any case, if this is smacking your groin unless you're on your tip toes, it's probably too big. It's probably too big in more dimensions than just the standover.

If you know someone who knows how to work on bikes, you can pick up a better-fitting frame for pretty cheap and swap all or nearly all of your parts over. Cheap frame example: http://www.pricepoint.com/deta...rdtail-Alloy-Frame.htm If you have to pay a shop to swap everything, the labor adds up pretty quickly.
 
Originally posted by: JulesMaximus
When your foot is at the bottom of a pedal stroke what is the degree of bend in your knee? For road cycling your leg should be only slightly bent at the bottom of the pedal stroke. For mountain biking I see guys with lower seats but I always found that I got the best power if my seat was higher...more like on a road bike.
Click to expand...

You are such a roadie. 😉

Best power if your seat is higher, yes. There are a lot of other considerations while mountain biking though. For real mountain biking, you'll likely want your seat lower than the "best power" roadie height, or use a quick adjust seatpost to switch heights at a moment's notice.
 
Originally posted by: JulesMaximus
When your foot is at the bottom of a pedal stroke what is the degree of bend in your knee? For road cycling your leg should be only slightly bent at the bottom of the pedal stroke. For mountain biking I see guys with lower seats but I always found that I got the best power if my seat was higher...more like on a road bike.
Click to expand...

Sorry I forgot to mention this, when the peddle is at the bottom, my knee is barely bent. It's very close to being straight but I don't strain to keep my foot on the pedal.
 
Originally posted by: Sabot
Get some flats if you're doing city riding, best decision I made bike-wise in a while.
Click to expand...

What is that? Just flat footed shoes right?
 
Originally posted by: Dirigible
You gotta have enough standover room so you don't hurt yourself when you come to a stop. Some like an inch or two of room between their junk and the top tube, but I don't see that as a requirement. In a crash I'm ejected anyway, and not racking myself.

Standover isn't my main measure of the fit of a mountain bike, the effective top tube measurement is.

In any case, if this is smacking your groin unless you're on your tip toes, it's probably too big. It's probably too big in more dimensions than just the standover.

If you know someone who knows how to work on bikes, you can pick up a better-fitting frame for pretty cheap and swap all or nearly all of your parts over. Cheap frame example: http://www.pricepoint.com/deta...rdtail-Alloy-Frame.htm If you have to pay a shop to swap everything, the labor adds up pretty quickly.
Click to expand...

Wow, that is cheap. I'm pretty capable to do it all myself. If anything, my dad tears down and builds bikes up all the time. Any recommendations to a best bang/buck frame?
 
Originally posted by: TridenT
Go to a bike shop and see if they will help you out?
Click to expand...

Well I did and they said my frame is too big, and the best they could do is adjust it for me to the best of their abilities. Then they wanted to sell me another bike.
 
No more recommendation than pointing out decent cheap frames exist, sorry.

There are some geometry differences between brands. If you know what sort of ride you want, you could probably use the head tube angle, etc. + reviews to provide some guidance.
 
Thanks, the price for the Reken is soooooo tempting, considering all the good reviews as well. I just know that I will mainly be riding the bike paths in the city. I'm guessing I would want a little less angle just because I won't be hitting real trails that often.
 
Dad's trying to convince me to just sell the whole bike and get a whole new one. I feel like that involves way more time since I gotta find a buyer on craigslist for the current one and buy another used one (which involves a lot of time looking for one on craigslist) cause i don't think i'd be able to find a similiar one new for the same price.
 
Originally posted by: NaOH
Originally posted by: Sabot
Get some flats if you're doing city riding, best decision I made bike-wise in a while.
Click to expand...

What is that? Just flat footed shoes right?
Click to expand...

I'm guessing he means street tires, aka "slicks"

essentially narrower, sometimes inverted tread tires meant to roll fast and efficient on the road. I second this opinion. Riding knobby tires around on the street sucks.
 
Originally posted by: Ksyder
Originally posted by: NaOH
Originally posted by: Sabot
Get some flats if you're doing city riding, best decision I made bike-wise in a while.
Click to expand...

What is that? Just flat footed shoes right?
Click to expand...

I'm guessing he means street tires, aka "slicks"

essentially narrower, sometimes inverted tread tires meant to roll fast and efficient on the road. I second this opinion. Riding knobby tires around on the street sucks.
Click to expand...

Ohh, yeah, that's the only upgrade I can think of for this bike at the time. My dad used to have those on this bike, but he swapped them out for "knobby" ones.

Other than the frame size, I can't think of anything I'd want to replace on this bike since everything is in working order, discs, drive train....etc.
 
Nashbar has some good deals on frames too. They have deals on a nice steel frame fairly often but not now 🙂. The sette frame is damn nice looking frame. I've been tempted to pick one up to replace my second bike's frame which is also a bit too big.
 
For frames, I've only been able to find these cheap generic frames kinda like the sette. I mean I hear great things about it but I can't seem to find any brand name ones to compare to.


Also, a big question I'm dealing with. Sell the whole bike and get a new one? Or just swap out the frame and keep all the bontrager, shimano deore drivetrain and fox parts? Selling the bike and getting another seems to be a bad trade off because it seems I can probably get at most 1K for my bike. That doesn't even put me in the same ballpark of bikes that this once used to be in. I'm not that familiar with bike technology...soooo =(
 
if the components are really great, sure why not swap the frame? Probably the components should all fit and you will learn how to build bikes in the process. Depends on whether or not you want to invest in specialty tools, etc to work on bikes and also have an interest.
 
I guess that's my problem. They were good parts at the time, but 6 years later, I'm not sure how well it stacks up today. I guess the benefits of tearing it down and swapping out the frame is that i get to keep these decent parts and learn about my bike at the same time.
 
Well unless the drive train is fucked, I'd just slap on some wet lube and go out and hit up some dirt to see if trails are for you.

edit:

Just read that the top tube is hitting your dick. The frame is 3 to 5" too big for you.
 
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