Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Sizing a bike vs. Fitting a bike

In the market for a new bike? Have you thought about where you are going to have your investment professionally fitted? Do you know what size bike frame you need?

Sizing a bike is rather mundane, and often overlooked as an important step in the bike fitting process. The directions below will give you exactly what you need to find the proper frame size. Taken directly from Wobble-Naught , the worlds best fitting solution and our chosen method to professionally fit bicycles.

The only tools needed to size your bike are 1) level or book, 2) a metric tape, and 3) a calculator!

This is a very simple sizing process!!! It takes very little time.

  1. Take your inseam length while standing in your socks with your feet about 4 to 6 inches apart, back against a wall.
  2. Hold your level or book under your crotch (pull up firmly).
  3. Use the tape from the top of the level or book, and measure to the floor.
  4. Read the tape in centimeters.
  5. Multiply the (cm) measurement by .67
  6. Mountain Bikes, subtract 11 cm and round to the lower number, road bikes round to the nearest even cm.
  7. This should roughly be the length of the seat tube on a properly sized frame.

This should give you a good reference point on size, so that you can obtain a precision fit.