Guides/landingPage/og/guideBikeFit-102016.jpg' alt='How To Install A Road Bike Crankset Length' title='How To Install A Road Bike Crankset Length' />Road bike sizing what size bike do I need Riding a bike that doesnt fit is no fun. Its uncomfortable and you risk injury from being too cramped or too stretched out, but knowing what size bike you should get can be a bit of a minefield. So heres some advice to help you decide on which frame to go for traditional, semi compact or compact and to help you find your perfect size. Getting the right fit means more than just having the right size frame. It also means your bike fits at all the main contact points saddle, handlebars and pedals. Have a read of our road bike positioning article to achieve the perfect setup. Aluminumalloy cotterless cranks had been a highend item, not found on the runofthemill European tenspeeds that sold for around 150 in the early 1970s bike boom. Where to go. As important as it is to have a reliable bike and pack as light as you can, choosing the right route is perhaps the key to your enjoyment. Shop from the worlds largest selection and best deals for Bicycle Frames. Shop with confidence on eBay NarrowWide tooth chain ring. Allen keys. Why use one ring In a word, simplicity. Losing the front derailleur simplifies the job you do on the bike to pedalling. If youve bought a disc brake bike recently, youve probably asked yourselfwhat disc brake wheels should I get to upgrade at a reasonable price Uses. A track bicycle or track bike is a form of fixedgear bicycle optimized for racing at a velodrome or at an outdoor track. Some road racing and club cyclists use. UK readers can you help us get more people on bikes Whether youre a keen cyclist or a complete beginner, wed love you to get involved in our Get Britain Riding campaign, in association with BTwin. Click here to sign up Of course, were not all the same, so use the information below as both a starting point and a guide. After you get the position close using these tips make smaller adjustments based on what feels better. Youll be able to get fit advice in person from a bike shop, though wed recommend getting an understanding of the different elements that affect how a bike fits to ensure you end up with the right size. We also recommend taking any bikes you are considering for a test ride to gauge how they feel in action. Manufacturers size guidelines. The simplest way to determine what size bicycle to go for is by using the guidelines bicycle manufacturers provide, which correlate various height ranges with different bike sizes. However, there are no standard sizes between the bicycle manufacturers, and each will have their own approach to bike design, so its useful to have an understanding of bike geometry and how that affects the fit to ensure you get the size that suits you best. Anatomy of the bicycle frame. Bike manufacturers will usually list the measurements for each element of a bikes geometry, so knowing what each measurement refers to is the first step. Use this diagram below to help you identify the different tubes used on the frame of a road bike. The effective top tube, shown in the diagram below, concerns bikes that use a sloping top tube road bikes with a semi compact or compact geometry. With experience you will soon find that a correctly sized bike will look in proportion when finally set up. This diagram shows the various tubes that make up a road bike frame. Manufacturers make frames in various sizes to suit the variety of riders. Getting the size right is essential, but this step is only halfway there. The fine tuning starts when you choose the length of the stem and the width of the bars. Frame geometries traditional, semi compact and compact. There are three geometries of frame size to consider when buying your first bike traditional, semi compact and compact. Traditional bicycle frame. Traditional frames are characterised by a top tube that runs parallel to the ground. There is a reduced space when standing over the bike, however, so sizing can be more critical here. This Fondriest road bike has a traditional geometry frame with a top tube parallel to the floor. Compact bicycle frames. Compact frames are meant to look more radical than conventional level top tube frames so expect to see an extra two to three inches of seatpost showing when compared with horizontal top tube bikes. The contact points should be exactly the same, so be aware of this when buying a compact should feel exactly like your preferred conventional road bike with respect to riding position. Compact geometry frames are characterised by a sloping top tube, shorter wheelbase and smaller rear triangle of the frame. The result is more standover clearance than a traditional geometry frame and a possibly stiffer but more responsive ride. This Ribble road bike features a compact frame with a sloping top tube. Semi compact bicycle frames. Semi compact geometry is similar to a compact with the only difference being that the sloping angle of the top tube is not as great, so the standover clearance is reduced and the effective top tube distance is slightly longer. A very narrow sloping top tube indicates that this Cannondale road bike has semi compact geometry. Important lengths. The most important consideration to make as you decide which frame to go for is the effective top tube length the distance from the head tube to the seatpost on a bike with a sloping top tube, or simply the length of the top tube on a road bike with traditional geometry. Get the top tube length too long and youll be overreaching to the handlebars, using a flatter riding position akin to a racing position, which could be uncomfortable on longer rides. If youre looking for a more comfortable riding position then you may wish to go for a shorter effective top tube length. Use the chart below for a rough guide on the frame size to go for. This table should act as a starting point for finding your most suitable frame size. Tweaking the bike fit. Once youve decided on your frame size you can fine tune your bike fit. The next critical adjustment to make is setting the bar and saddle height. Check out how to get your bike seat right to get you started. You may also want to adjust or change the stem, as that can also affect your reach literally, how far you are reaching forward to the handlebars and also the handling and performance of the bike. Further tweaks can include adjusting the foreaft position and tilt of your saddle, the angle of your handlebars, and the distance to the brake levers. Many of these changes can be made in a good bike shop, though a bike fit is also worth its weight in gold. As part of a bike fitting session, bike fit experts will get you riding on a fixed trainer to check your bike position and ensure everything fits you perfectly. Women who have opted for a unisex bike may find our guide to the most common adjustments that make these bikes more female friendly useful. Salsa Deadwood SUS Review BIKEPACKING. Aside from those strapping 2. Deadwood the sequel SUS shares just one similarity with the original steel dropbar bike of the same name it makes folks wonder. We took the 2. 9 Deadwood SUS on flow trails, dirt roads, gnarly singletrack, and into the backcountry trying to make heads or tails of this curiosityNormally I try to weave a story into bike reviews in order to keep them interesting, or at least interesting to write. Each one typically involves some sort of contextual rambling to set the tone for discussing the bike in question. However, for this one I am getting straight to the point. Even though it may be considered ultra niche to some, the new Salsa Deadwood SUS is a versatile machine that has people wondering just what this bike is all about. So heres exactly what this bike is, where it came from, who its for, and why as well as points about how this bike and its components performed on the trail over several hundred miles and a couple months of testing. What The Salsa Deadwood SUS is not. Released in the 2. Salsa Deadwood was designed for dirt road exploration with a rigid steel frame, drop handlebars, and 2. It looked like the perfect vehicle for scouting a 1,3. East Africa. So we set one up and took it to Uganda and Rwanda where it proved its worth in spades. I say was because the original Deadwood was a one off creation replaced this year by the latest Fargo, specced with a 2. When the news broke that Salsa nixed the Deadwood from their 2. Fargo folks scratched their heads. Not because it was some must have, do all bike for the masses, but because it had one of the greatest product names Salsas marketing team has ever conjured although the Coen brothers inspired Fargo followed by the Woodchipper handlebar was pretty damned clever too. Fast forward to March of this year in Harrisonburg, VA when Salsa lifted the curtain on Deadwood the sequel SUS and there was a collective sigh of puzzled relief. The return of Deadwood sports a carbon, full suspension frame, a dropper seatpost, hydraulic brakes, and a 1x drivetrain 11. Eagle on the X0. 1, or 11. XT or GX builds. Its a bike thats completely divergent from its 21. BB7 equipped forebear, even in the details. Given the stark contrast between the 2. SUS, one might assume that a new and unique take on the Deadwood will be launched each model year. Thats highly doubtful, but it is perfectly clear that the Deadwood name is rooted in the 2. And while 2. 7. 5 has seemingly overshadowed its bigger brother, were stoked to see the 2. Salsa positions this bike somewhere between their 8. XC Spearfish and the enduro Red Point. I think its more inline with the 2. Pony Rustler. In fact, the Deadwood uses the same carbon front end as the Pony Rustler with a different alloy rear triangle and linkage to accommodate the larger wheels and tires and a shorter shock. Who The Deadwood SUS is forThe name gets the SUS addition for obvious reasons. With just 9. 1 millimeters of rear travel and 1. Rock. Shox Pike on the X0. Windows 8 Pre Xtreme Edition X86 Platform on this page. XT builds, or a Yari on the GX the Deadwood SUS is, without a doubt, a short travel bike. A 1. 00mm bike might conjure images of sinewy, spandex clad racers arched over super lightweight, narrow barred XC rigs, but thats not who the Deadwoods for. The chunky wagon wheel 2. According to Salsa, the Deadwood SUS is designed for trail riding and connecting widely spaced points on unfamiliar maps. I would agree with that sentiment and add that, more specifically, it was designed for those of us who went all weak kneed over the Krampus back when Surly invented 2. Deadwood but wanted a rig more apt for gnarly singletrack. The first thing that came to mind when Salsa released the SUS was the same thing thats been rattling in my head quite literally sometimes for a long time, Wouldnt it be kinda cool if there was a version of the Krampus that had just a little suspension Of course thats after a multi year romp with the rigid Krampus and ECR combo, for everything from dirt road odysseys to the Kokopelli Trail, to singletrack throwdowns at the likes of Sedona, Pisgah, Hurricane, and Moab. The Krampus high volume tires combined with a long and somewhat slack geometry make all kinds of riding doable on a rigid frame. And that is what makes it such an enticing bike with a zealous cult following. Many in that fan club might insist that rigid 2. But there are others who have been eagerly awaiting the right full suspension iteration to emerge. That said, the Deadwood SUS is not a full suspension 2. In fact, the concept behind it makes a lot of sense match solid trail oriented geometry with a short travel suspension design, a good fork, and voluminous 2. The name of the game being the right amount of travel, just enough to amplify the ultra sticky, stable and confidence inspiring benefits of 2. The challenge for Salsa was to fit 2. Salsa successfully pulled it off via their fairly compact Split Pivot suspension design. Notes on the suspension. The Deadwood SUS X0. Rock. Shox Monarch RT3 in the rear and a Pike RC 1. On first glance I was a little put off that neither lock out, and the firmest setting on each didnt really change as much as expected. However, after a couple rides that quickly became a non issue. After the tires were set up tubeless I dropped tire pressure to about 1. This was my first rodeo with a Pike I wasnt even aware they made a shorty version of it but the rumors and reports Id read are fairly accurate. The Pike has a nice and firm platform at the beginning of its travel which minimizes a lot of movement while climbing or wrangling technical bits, even loaded with a bikepacking kit in tow. Presumably this stout feel can be altered by adjusting the low speed compression to feel much more like a Fox fork, but I left it set up this way. Coming from a plush Fox Float 3. Pony Rustler, it took a little getting used to, but now Im sold on the firmer platform and short travel with big tires. The RT3 paired with the Split Pivot also did a great job at feeling steady and generally stable both climbing and bikepacking. Honestly, this is the best suspension design and combination Ive experienced when it comes to pedaling efficiency, both loaded and unloaded. Im sure that the limited 9. I feel the choice of components and linkage design are due some of the credit. It also performed well for small bumps. There were a few occasions where I felt its limits though. On bigger drops and fast hits through rocky sections there were definitely moments where more cush would have been welcomed. Where should the Deadwood SUS be riddenFull suspension is pretty nice on the rooty and rocky trails of my home base, Pisgah National Forest. Yeah, there are a few rigid diehards that roam these hills, but there are many more who wouldnt touch them on anything with under 1. I put in my fair share of miles here on the rigid Krampus, but Im not getting any younger and neither are my knees, back, or wrists. When I tried the Pony Rustler last year the squish was a welcome change, and thats coming from a self proclaimed rigid steel 3 tire fanatic. Of course the Deadwood has significantly less travel than the Pony 3. This kind of brought me back to the rigid platform where 2. It has a little more of that feel. But instead of methodically picking through rock strewn sections, as was often the case on a bike such as the Krampus, they could be charged on the SUS.