Ok to wade in on this.
I cant find the bike I want/ can afford in one go. (spesh enduro 29er would do but its not perfect).
So I decided to make my own frame, I’m into year two and could have bought the bike I want. But getting there and it will be awesome when riding home built bike.

I noticed at core bike that a lot of manufactures had stopped doing xl bikes. I asked them why. They tried to convince me that the large fitted people from 5ft10 to over 6ft4.

A 100mm stem really doesn’t work on a xl 29er.

I tried a large kinesis ff29 but it was far too small for me (6ft3)

euro bike companies seem to be the place to look if you need a true xl bike,
cube, ghost, rose and merida all do a proper xl and xxl bike.
my cube ltd 29 is a xxl 23”

I remember having a certain branded ti hardtail with a 150mm head tube and it felt god aweful to steer, shame as it was the best floaty feeling ti feel from a frame I ever owned.
sold!

Maybe if you are on the lookout for a dead handling frame with vague steering then I’m sure a custom ht or just scout round for xl sized full suss brands for around the 140mm-150mm length in the head tube dept.

I work with a 6’7″ guy – we had loads of fun adjusting his first Claude Butler roadbike anywhere near a slightly decent fit (it is still awful TBH).

He is now on the slippery n+1 slope. Specialized appears to be the only UK brand that is anywhere near his size. Have been telling him Netherlands is the place to go but not much help when he wants it on B2W. Noticed that Merida UK stopped at 58cm, whilst NL had same bike in a 60cm.

Gotta feel a bit of pity for the manufacturers given that the fashion for the past 10 years or so has been for tall folk to ride bikes that were much smaller than the manufacturers recommended (hora et al.). They must have got fed up doing small runs of XL sized bikes and even then not selling them.

It’s the taller/larger sizes that seem to get increasingly screwy geo too. I was looking at the Cube Stereo when the current version came out. Big thing that started the alarm bells ringing as that even though each size went up in seat tube and headtube length in normal increments, the wheelbase barely changed. If I recall correctly 7mm between the 20″ and the 22″ frame. I stopped looking at it then.

The problem with some of the euro bike frames is from xl to xxl the seat tube dimension gose up an inch yet the top tube only increases half an inch.

Find the same with jeans/trousers 38″ decent leg length, 40″ shorter leg length than 38s?

Actually find the geo on the 21.5″ scandal spot on.

There’s plenty bikes out there big enough, and too big, for the OP. He’s a serial shopper and complainer.
The choice is limited at the bigger end of the bike market, but there’s bikes out there. When living in the UK I let a few fellas my size and bigger test ride my big bikes and they were all comfortable (or didn’t actually need something as big as they thought).

FWIW, ton, IIRC I’m not too dissimilar to you in height (6’5″) and it hacks me off when bikes have really long head tubes – my Swift’s is 135mm and if I ride it with suspension fork, that makes the front end too high unless I use a negative rise stem.

120mm is pretty much exactly right for me on most frames (along with a 25 – 25.5″ ETT)

There’s plenty bikes out there big enough, and too big, for the OP. He’s a serial shopper and complainer.

can you please point out where in my post, that i said that there were no bikes big enough for me.
my bike front is sorted for now, and both my bikes were bought because they are suitable for someone my size.

also while i am on, you seem to have a problem TooTall, whith my bike buying……..are you jealous, you stalking bastard?
jealous of a fat northern bloke, who can buy what bike he wants, whenever he wants, and as many times as he wants.

mm what shall i choose next… 😆

alreet alreet calm daaawn. 😮

Who won the fight? There was a fight, wasn’t there..?

pinnacle ramin 1. xl 19.5 frame with a tiny 120mm headtube

For a 6’3 rider with av proportions and the saddle up, 20mm of spacers, a fork around ~495mm, it’s about 40mm saddle to bar drop. The Ramin 1 is a bit lower as it’s rigid, maybe 60mm drop.
We’ve made the Ramin 1 and B+ head tubes a bit longer for next year, to suit rigid forks better. That’s going against what most people seem to want on a 29er though, a common comment is that the fronts are too high. Personally I’ve never wanted a bar to be lower than a bike will allow, but often higher.