Bike envy - breathe deep!

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Originally Posted by Catriona

I'm 5'1, 30 inch inseam or whatever. My legs are definitely not long & my torso is not short...

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A 30" inseam on a 5'1" person is actually quite long! Your legs are not long in comparison to someone taller, but they're longer than most gals your height. And men tend to have shorter inseams for their height than women. My DH is 5'10", and I'm not sure what his cycling inseam is exactly, but he wears 31" length Levis! I'm 5'1-1/2", my cycling inseam is around 28.5, and I still have relatively long legs for my height (i.e., most petite pants are too short!) I ride bikes with short top tubes and setback seatposts because my femurs are long for my height too. I used to ride a 17.5" Terry Isis that fit me quite well.

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I'm 5'1, 30 inch inseam or whatever. My legs are definitely not long & my torso is not short...

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Well I've hunted and hunted and I can't find the original source for this information.

But what I have understood is that average inseam when measured floor to crotchal area for a 5'2" woman is 28".

My inseam is actually 30.5"

My son is 5'10" and his inseam is 33" - 8 " taller but only 2.5" longer legged.

My dad is 6' 1" and HIS inseam is 32" - almost a FOOT taller and only 1.5" more in the legs.

I rode bike with a woman 5'7" or 5'8" and her arms and legs were the same length as mine. 5" or 6" of difference in height, all in the torso.

If the original information is correct - and I can't verify it nor remember where it came from - then I think you ARE long legged for your height.

:confused: Confoozled . . . .

Maybe I'll measure my inseam and see if it's actually 30 inches! I know I had a road bike with a 30 inch standover (I measured it when I sold it), that I was fine on (not spare room, but fine). But that would've been with bike shoes on.

Ha ha! All of you should count your blessings you aren't in the bike industry! Every day is bike/clothing/component lust inducing for me. I love my little boy Blue with all my heart but every time I see a BMC I just get so piney. If I had my druthers I'd have a:

-TT Bike
-Dirt jumper
-Hard tail MTB
-Fully MTB
-BMX bike
-Touring bike
-City path/commuter
-Cross bike

And that is of course, factoring in El Tiburon the soon to be crit-tastic wonder boy.

Zan, my cycling inseam is 30.5, but the real measurement you need is that of your femur. If your femur is proportionally long, you need a slack seat tube angle to achieve even neutral cops. STAs don't effect handling in isolation. Its true that on some bikes with slack STAs the handling is sluggish, but that's only if the rear seat stay is extended in order to fit a 700c wheel on a bike with a slack STA.

My thinking was like yours when I bought my isis, the STA on the 17.5" was just at my limit (73), but she made the STA on the newer 19" 74 and I couldn't get set up on it. I also *thought* at the time I needed the shorter top tube, but then I learned that you also gain stability from a longer front-center, so for me the 48cm cervelo has the 73 STA, a longer top tube (51.5) but with the longer front to center its more stable, and I got set up fine with a shorter reach stem and bar (9 cm stem and a 3Tergonova team bar w7.7cm reach). BUT, I am taller than you, 5 ft 4.5".

What I have learned is that you can't consider any one paramater in isolation. Indeed your Madeleine is optimized for touring, which is what you want to do, and it sounds like it fits you well (I also have a jacked up seat and bars on my isis), so you should feel very lucky.

But Deb is right. For gals like us, custom is probably the best option, especially for a touring bike. I just happened to luck out on my cervelo, which is what I wanted, a carbon go fast bike.

But getting back to the original topic. I don't get bike lust much when I am happy with my ride. But when I know something is wrong, like after losing weight I was still getting dropped on my titanium isis on group rides, so that is when I started looking at what everyone else is riding. ANd for me the cervelo did make a difference. But GLC is FAST on her titanium isis, I think cuz it fits her better than me.