How big is too big?

[smurfalicious]

Wow, haven't been here in a while. A lot has changed in life and geography. Sold the Pony and used the money to buy a baby blue horse trailer in her honor. Started competing in more barrel races. Got engaged, broke up with the cheating loser, moved to Colorado. Condensed version, anyway.

Now I'm moving to my own pad out in Boulder and need a bike. Cheap. It seems like the Boulder thing to do. Plus I gained weight with the ex and would like to be semi skinny again. Oh, and did I mention biking feels sooooooo good?

It's hard because I'm a freegin bike snob and I can at very least settle for something with vintage cool points. I found an old 1982 Bianchi, but the gal thinks it's like 55 or 57cm. I vaguely remember test riding 52s and 53s. I'm 5'5", does that sound right? Of course back then I liked my bikes super tight. Is this something I could bring in with a short stem, or should I let my Bianchi green dreams die?

[dex]

I'm a little under 5'5" (5'4.75", thankyouverymuch), with proportionally short legs and long torso. When bike shopping last winter, I almost bought an older 53cm Bianchi Veloce (mid 1990's-ish), and the fit on that was pretty spot-on for me--it had a 53.5cm top tube with a 100mm stem. (I changed my mind because some of the components turned out to be in rough shape and the wheels needed to be replaced, hence cancelling out the money-saving benefit of buying a used bike.)

I ended up on a 53cm LeMond.

At 5'5", a 55cm might be doable, depending on how you're proportioned and how much tweaking you'd be willing to do to get it to fit. But I'd think a 57cm would probably be pushing it well into the too big range.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I also think the bike would be definitely too big for you- beyond what a short stem could fix.

[mimitabby]

I agree with Bleeker girl. You could ride the bike but you'll never be comfy. Don't give up so easily, there will be more cool bikes!

PS. your story was interesting. You sold your horse to buy a horse trailer.
why did you need a horse trailer after you sold the horse? Curious minds need to know

[SadieKate]

Pony was her bike.

[Trek420]

So can I barrel race on a bike? :D

[aicabsolut]

If you got a really short stem to try to make the bike fit, you're going to lose some handling. That is a big jump in sizes. Also, even more of a problem would be standover height. If you can't stand over the bike, it's kind of hard to get going and then to stop again unless you're really good at doing the leg swing over thing.

[smurfalicious]

Ha ha! SadieKate remembers! Yeah, Pony was my beloved two tone blue Gary Fisher Big Sur GS. I found her an excellent, loving home. Sold her for way too little but they saw my desperation, and that trailer was gonna sell if I didn't move quick. Small enough for my truck but big enough for my horse trailers are hard to come by, even if they are robin's egg blue.

Anyway, I found an old Diamond Back in STEEEEEEEEEL because STEEEEEEL is REEEEEEEAL. It's a 52cm with fairly ghetto tech components but it's dirt cheap. w00t w00t!

Bike for HillBill, happy days are here again! Now I gotta get mom to ship my spandex out of storage and we're set. Cross your fingers it works out because I wanna be a size 8 again.

Peas!
-HillBill