Hired a Transition Bandit Large on Sat – enjoyed the handling, but as expected after 4 hours I had aching shoulders and wrists – I’m 6’4” and on paper the Large is for riders up to 6’2”, so it was never going to feel great. My dilemma is this – on paper the XL is perfect for me – transition recommend this for riders 6’2” to 6’6”. However, it’s a lot of cash to splash out on a bike I’ve not ridden, and there’s no possibility of riding or hiring an XL demo. If I knew it would fit, I’d get it – but is it too big a risk to take?.
Any 6’4” Bandit riders in the Edinburgh area?????

I can sort of help. I’m 6 foot and demo’d a medium. It felt great going down but was too cramped on the ups. However it rode the way I liked so bought a large assuming it would give me the ride I want but fit me better. No regrets

How long are your arms/legs?

I’m only 6’2″ but need a 20″ frame and a lot of seatpost showing, as in enough that I don’t know anyone else who can actually ride my bike.

And if you are spending that much, agree, try/demo one. In fact you’re spending enough to have an away-day to demo one.

Guess you will have tried all the local outlets – but Flying Fox in Alva sell Transition, not sure if they have any demo bikes – might be worth a call.

Flying Fox

Stilltortoise – your bang in the middle of the sizes too, so if I follow your route, I should be fine. Did you demo a medium by choice or was that all that was available? My concern is that bandits might run small, and I might still have aches and pains. Did you have to change stems / posts at all?
I’m also looking at a rumblefish – their XL is about the same size, but they also go up to an XXL.

b r – long legs too. All my bikes look kinda stupid with the seat up so high, but what can you do? Can’t get trousers to fit either!

Flowerpower – I’ll give Alva a ring tomorrow and see if they have anything, or if they have sold any xl’s.

The medium was the only choice for demo purposes. Since it was a custom build I did have different kit on my large compared to the demo medium. I went for a slightly shorter stem for example. I’m fairly “ordinary” in my size and shape so I’m not too difficult to fit for anything to be honest. Mr Demographic as I like to call myself 🙂

I do, however, have reasonably long arms/back and short(ish) legs. Does that help or confuse more?

With all that said, do you regularly suffer from aches and pains when riding or find it hard to get a bike to fit? If I did I’d be looking at addressing the root cause before splashing my cash on an undemo’d bike and/or making sure I’d had a good test ride first.

Shorter stem with long back and arms actually helps – makes me think that that ett is OK on these bikes, despite looking small on paper.
I’ve got a Large zesty at the moment – I had to put bars with a bigger rise on to be comfortable, but I can ride that all day with no wrist or back pain (unless I come off!), so I don’t think there are underlying problems. I’ve always thought I needed a bit more in the top tube though, but if it rides OK and it’s comfortable, that may be all psychological.