How important is standover height?

[mayanorange]

Oooh, she's pretty! She and Fern should get together for a playdate! How do you like the barend shifters?

[venacava]

Oooh, she's pretty! She and Fern should get together for a playdate! How do you like the barend shifters?

I love them! I installed them myself (the previous owner used downtube shifters) and they make me proud.

If she ever makes it to MA, I'll contact you!

[alpinerabbit]

It's pretty, but judging from how low your saddle is, probably simply too big. One day you probably will want a new bike....

[venacava]

It's pretty, but judging from how low your saddle is, probably simply too big. One day you probably will want a new bike....

You make me want to put my hands over my ears and go "la la la la la la la".

It's definitely the biggest bike I own (and since it's become my main ride over the last couple of weeks and my body has been growing more and more accustomed to it, my other bikes now feel too small for me...imagine that). But it's caused me no pain so far. The real test will be this weekend when I take it for its first long-long ride.

[wildeny]

About the position of shifters.
To me, they are a little bit higher. I imagine that it will be very difficult for me to apply brakes with my hands either on hoods or on the drops, especially when going downhill.

[venacava]

About the position of shifters.

I'm assuming you meant to write "position of <i>brakes</i>", as bar-ends are bar-ends, and they can only have one position...on the ends of the bars.

To me, they are a little bit higher. I imagine that it will be very difficult for me to apply brakes with my hands either on hoods or on the drops, especially when going downhill.

As I said before, hands-on-hoods is my default position; I apply brakes from that angle all the time.

[venacava]

Thought I'd post an update on this, for those who may be interested...

I took the RB-T for its first long-ish ride last weekend (70 miles one way, then 70 miles home two days later). Everything went superbly, with the exception of fatigue in the part of me where my neck meets my shoulders. "Oh no," I thought. "The new stem didn't have the effect I was hoping for; this frame really is too big; I'm never going to be able to make it work; buyer's remorse wah wah wah" and so on.

Then I remembered that several years ago, when I bought my first road bike, I was feeling pain in the exact same part of my body. BUT that bike was closer to the correct size for me (52 cm). So I figured that if the RB-T hurt in the exact same place, the problem wasn't the frame size.

THEN I remembered that I took that road bike to an LBS for a fitting, and the woman who fit me determined that the handlebars were too wide for me. I had the bars switched out, she made a few other adjustments, and the pain went away.

So I measured the RB-T's bars, and they were 4 cm wider than the bars on my road bike. I took the bars off of the RB-T and replaced them with a (significantly narrower) pair of SR World Randonneur bars that I had lying around. So far, so good on the couple of short rides that I've taken with the new bars. I guess the real test will come when I take it on it's NEXT long ride, though

Happy riding.

[barrcra]

Is this a 53cm? I have a 50cm in beautiful shape and am looking to purchase or trade for a 53cm. would be willing to swap frames.