http://www.rivbike.com/html/101_pureopinions.html
ps rivendell makes very expensive custom bikes.


Fit and Sizing.
These are the most important aspects of any bike, and the most misunderstood. Most people buy bikes too small. If you’re over 6ft 4in, it’s a sure bet, because bikes don’t come big enough for you. Basically, bikes were originally designed for underfed Europeans, and the sizing hasn’t changed since, at least in the mainstream. But even normal-sized and small folks ride bikes too small.

Around here we joke that “we like to put people on bikes that are too big,” but what we really mean by that is “your bike shop and local fit guru may think it’s too big, but we know better.”

We have too much to say about fit and sizing to include it all here (see our print catalogue or elsewhere online). But basically it goes like this: You will be more comfortable if the handlebar is as high or higher than the saddle; and that relationship is hard to achieve on most bikes, because they were designed by folks who don’t think that’s important.

To determine your saddle height: see our print catalogue. You do not benefit from an in-person, hands-on, expensive and industrialized and gadget-dependent bike fitting session if the specialist is following a routing with a fundamental flaw or bi


as built right into it, and they all have that.