What if bike frame is too big

Getting the right size bike is a combination of fit and feel. Ultimately the decision should be on how comfortable and confident you will be while riding it.

Before we discuss how to decide on the right size bike, we need to explain why bicycle sizing is about much more than just one number. Getting the right bike fit is complicated.

Road bike sizes are given in centimetres. On most bikes, this measurement is the distance between the bottom bracket where the front chainset is joined to the bike and the top of the seat tube. However, some bike builders measure their frames from the centre of the bottom bracket to the centre of the top tube instead. Mountain bike sizes cover the distance between the bottom bracket and the top of the seat tube, but to make things confusing use inches instead of centimetres.

The length of the top tube will affect how far you have to reach. The height of the handlebars and the length of the stem the metal tube that links the forks to the handlebars will also play a role in how a bike feels to you. The height of the bike is important too.

You should also be able to stand over the bike with a gap between your crotch and the top tube. This is so that you can easily climb on and off your bike. A bigger frame allows for looser handling, which some people prefer. The size of the frame should accommodate your height, proportions and riding preferences. Bike fit is the key to comfort. A larger frame changes the way that you ride, which impacts the performance of the bike and how you sit on it.

The most noticeable issue with a large frame is the handling. If the bike fits right, you should be able to take a degree turn with ease. When a bike is too large, you often need to take wider turns. Dealing with obstacles is also more of a challenge with a larger frame. For example, navigating a dirt trail on a large mountain bike is cumbersome and clunky. A larger frame requires you to sit more upright compared to a bike that fits your size. A road bike should place you in a forward-leaning position while a mountain bike will put you in a slightly upright position.

A larger frame might force you to strain, especially when going uphill or trying to pick up speed. Show 2 more comments. Active Oldest Votes. A couple of things to tide you over: Obviously, put the seat down as far as you can. Improve this answer. It's much better in terms of proper bike fit to move the handlebars back rather than the seat forward — Jake Fuller. Add a comment. Thanks for all the info. I tried lowering the seat and that helps a little.

The bike I have is '54cm' and I am only about 5'5. The salesman said I needed a 50cm frame, which sounds odd now since you said you only have a 48cm frame at 6'3!! I am thinking I just got a dud bike salesman So your salesman isn't crazy. I should have gone a bit easy on Bob! Yeah, Bob seems to be a helpful guy after all. Andy is right and referring again to Andy's comment above, my bike is a Jamis Hybrid and completely ignored that.

I will update my answer to look a bit better. I know this is a dead thread, but at 5'4" you'd fit most ideally on a 52cm road bike — Jake Fuller.

Your best option is to sell your bike and buy another better-fitting used model. Alan Gerber Alan Gerber 1, 1 1 gold badge 8 8 silver badges 12 12 bronze badges. Robert Tompkins Robert Tompkins 21 1 1 bronze badge. Gramner Gramner 21 1 1 bronze badge. Welcome to SE Bicycles. That's a good suggestion for someone who hasn't finished growing.

I assume you were a wee kid and ended up growing into the bike? There are in fact two most important dimensions that determine how you fit the bike from my experience : the distance between the bottom bracket and the top of the saddle, which should match your inseam lengt the distance between the saddle and the handlebar mount where the bars meet the stem , which should match your trunk torso height and arms length The former is determined by the combination of the frame height thus frame size and the seat post length.

In your case the frame size is fixed so in order to make your bike fit better you can play with seat post height and stem length only. Furthermore, if your road bike is of the older vintage type and you want to change the stem length, it means that you either replace the stem requires either putting the threadless stem quill adapter, modern and shorter stem like RJ the Bike Guy did in his tutorial on How To Convert Quill Stem To Threadless Stem With Adapter On Vintage Bike , or you replace the stem quill for the older type provided you find a short one and rewrap the bars, etc.

Both are costly options comparing to the value of the bike. Mike Mike 4, 1 1 gold badge 13 13 silver badges 26 26 bronze badges.

Check out a triathlon bike post. They bent forward. You're not wrong there, but this answer is quite brief. Can you use the Edit link to expand this into a fullt-fleshed answer?

Also, you want your saddle position to be determined by your legs. You do not want to adjust your saddle position only to shorten the reach I. Jim Jim 1. Seat posts typically have a fairly long length so can be extended quite far.

Never position the post past this point as there is not enough post in the frame to adequately support the weight. If you do, the frame can actually bend and break quite easily.

The solution to raising the seat further is to get a longer seat post which can be found relatively easily at your well stocked local bike shop or online. A mm length post is about as long as you can easily find.

Just make sure you get the right size diameter post as most bikes have different sizes. Having too small of a bike places you too far forward on the bike.

Sliding your saddle back can help solve this. The first way to do this is to loosen the bolts on the rails of the saddle and slide it back as needed. Standard typically ranges from 10mm to 20mm. And if you find a post with the right set back but the diameter is too small you can use pre-made shims to make it fit properly. The next area of the bike that is probably going to be an issue is how close the handle bars are to your body. The solution to this is a longer stem which will push the bars further out in front of you.

Depending upon how long the stem is now, you can get a stem around mm to mm in length.