I am not proportional! I need help!

[MelC]

You can see on a related thread called "Bike Sizing" that my friend is having similar issues because she needs a long reach bike (54cm) but doesn't have enough inseam to get on the darn thing. Women's geometry is the exact wrong thing for you because typically this is designed for long legs and short reach. Compact geometry seems to be the best thing we have found so far since they fudge the effective top tube length by having a sloped frame (don't ask me how this works - geometry was a long time ago) that results in a smaller bike with a longer effective reach. The Giant bikes - OCR1, OCR2 and OCR3 are all compact geometry. There are some others as well I believe but since we are looking for a used bike we have been focussing on what comes up.

Good luck.

Mel

[Triskeliongirl]

I still think she needs to be fully measured. As I say before, her inseam relative to height only tells us she is long torsoed, but without knowing her arm length, we still don't know for sure if she she really needs a long top tube. Compact geometry will help her to get a bike with more standover clearance given that her legs are short.

[Sharona1973]

Thank you again to everyone for the great informative replies. This may not be what most of you will do, but I have decided to get an entry level road bike. I talked to the owner of the LBS and he is aware of my issues with the standover height. My situation is this: there are only 2 bike shops in town. The one that actually does fitting is one that does pressure sells and not the best shop to buy a bike from. The other bike shop is owned by a couple who love cycling and they have been in business for over 18 years and I've been in to talk to them for several days now and they have never pressured me into buying their bikes.

The owner, Scott, doesn't think that the standover height is going to be that much of an issue. He is more concerned about the fit of the bike and has told me that if I get a bike that I like, he will fit the bike to me. I test rode a 51cm bike frame Jamis Ventura Sport and it was definitely not fitted properly to me because of the long top tube.

My current dilemma is also based on the fact that I am just now getting into cycling and triathlons and I just don't have the money to spend on an expensive road bike.

Actually all of these numbers are making my head hurt and perhaps someday I'll be crunching them when I am a superb rider. For now, I'm going to get a bike that I can afford and take it to Scott and he can make sure it's a proper fit.

I will let you know how it goes!