[Closed] 5ft 11 - 6ft riders...what frame size? Thoughts please.

I'm 5' 11" and use a Medium Santa Cruz Heckler, that climbs well enough for me, but it will vary considerably on the Manufacturer.

I'm 6'1" and i ride a large FSR XC, but i have pretty long legs and a fairly short torso, so if you're the opposite i can see why a medium might be too short for you.

Pretty much 6" here - Medium Yeti ASR, which is 19" seat tube, 19" Voodoo Wanga 19" Orange P7 (1996). Wouldn't want to go any bigger...

I think it depends on Manuf. as well though

Medium, 18"ish for me in both 26 and 29, I'm 5'11 BTW.

I'm 6' with 34" inside leg and ride a Medium Titus and a 19" old saracen hardtail.

I am 5' 11" (and a half 🙂 ) with 31.5" inside leg.

I ride a medium usually either 18" or 17.5".

I had a medium Spesh Pitch which fit me perfect, used to have a Marin Wolf Ridge in Large (as their size chart said it was the size i needed) but it felt too stretched out n tall so i sold it on. Now ride the same Wolf Ridge in Medium and it fits great.

Also had an On One SS that was medium too.

Just my experiences though.

Cheers folks. I think reinforcing that I might go for the medium this time round.

5'11 7/8"

18" Inbred
Large Specialized FSR
54cm road bike

I'm 5'11" and ride a medium hardtail (18 inch) and a large short travel susser (19.5", I think, but I never measured it). I got fairly long legs (33") and both fit me well.

I find the hardtail terrific on the easier stuff and climbing, but my weight's too far forward for any bonkers downhill - the susser, with it's longer top tube, it much much more stable. I can barrel through stuff on the bigger bike that has me sh!tting myself on the smaller bike.

6 foot tall riding a large Giant Trance X. Always had mediums/18s before, feel much better on this.

6 foot even and have always ridden large frames. Can relate to the annoyance of always being on the border of those sizing charts.
I'd rather ride a larger frame with a shorter stem then the other way round.

5'11" on a medium turner. i tried a bfe just up and down the road and a small felt too big, slightly longer stem which i reckon must have been the factor.
i'm longer int he body though and like plenty of room for the family jewels so maybe that's a bit odd but that'd be my starting point in the bike shop.

5'11" on a Medium Heckler by all accounts it should be too small but it feels perfect to me and no worse to climb on than the large I had before.

I'm just under 6" and like you I'm not quite either a medium or large in most manufacturers.
I settled on a medium (17.5") Cotic which is as small as I can comfortably go (but not without much agonising beforehand; thanks to Cy & Paul!).
I now use this as a guide for any other bike based on effective top tube. Last FS I got was a medium (19") Chumba VF2 which was much better sized than the large Titus Motolite I had prior. The Titus medium was 'just' too small (although in retrospect I could probably have just sneaked by with it) but the large was too big...
So all in all you have to test ride (or be able to refer it back TT-wise to what you know works for you).
Sorry for the ramble (but you started it...) 😉

To metalheart. Yes, my English teacher always marked me down for waffling and taking ages to get to the point!

Ahem. Yes. Well. I should have said good luck with the medium but make sure you check that the ETT is right (for me the magic number is 23.25"/590mm).
I'd imagine that it would be pretty similar for yourself?

Im 5ft 11 , 6ft with shoes and ride a large s-works enduro with 50mm stem and 710 wide bars.

Did you test ride a medium enduro when choosing between the two?

5'11" on a Large Heckler with a layback post & 100mm stem & a Large Turner with inline post & 100mm stem.

I'm 5'11" and I ride a large 2004 Enduro and a large 2009 Wolf Ridge.

If anything, the Wolf Ridge is right on the lower limit top tube lengthwise for me, I like my bikes low, slack and long. I did used to run a medium Rock Springs, but I found that although I liked the standover, the top tube length was far too short for me.

If you think about it, you'll make a long bike handle better on the descents with a short stem, but a short bike is going to handle like a donkey with a long enough stem to clear your kneecaps.

5ft 11.5in on a medium Trance X - ETT = 585mm is just long enough for me, the Large was just too high at the front end. 400mm seat post and 80mm stem.

Even if you're identically sized to someone else, the two of you might like different sized bikes because of the way you ride, how flexible you are etc. Add in the notion that some people have long legs and a short back and others the other way round and asking what size a 6 footer should ride becomes almost impossible.

Test rides are your friend; ring bike shops, tap up friends (then buy the 18" Orange Five like everyone else 😀 ).

I'm looking at a medium intense (tracer) with a 420mm Reverb seatpost for it. ETT is 23". I measured my Enduro earlier and was surprised to find it is also 23" (although strangely quoted in the literature as 24"...).

When I bought the Enduro I bought it online so went by the size guides. Although to be fair I think the specialized size guides were a bit more definitive (Large 5'11" - 6'2").

igm - I'm really tempted by an orange 5, please don't tempt me more. And it's certainly a bike I could demo at Glentress as well so as to get a good idea. And one of my criteria is I want to eventually want to fit a CCDB to it. And I really like the neon yellow special colour. But I'm being put off by the price...the price of all that just seems too much for a Five.

cheer all

If you think about it, you'll make a long bike handle better on the descents with a short stem, but a short bike is going to handle like a donkey with a long enough stem to clear your kneecaps.

Agree.
I'm same size + had similar problems. Tried to make Cannondales fit but mediums feel too short + larges feel like gates. But medium Soul, and 18" Orange ST4 fit really nicely.

Similar to you I live somewhere without decent LBS's to try stuff, but found that even though on paper there may not be much to choose between different bikes, 10 minutes of sitting on one can show up the difference between something you're going to have to get all long stem + layback seatpost with + something that fits. Worth making the effort to travel to try, better than wasting money on a frame thats never going to be right.

neallyman - your post could have been writen by myself! I've got the exact same problem as you, being the same size and looking at similar bikes. I like the nimble feel of a smaller frame, but too small and i feel cramped.
I only lasted a few rides on my previous bike - a medium turner 5spot, too low and short (tested a large which was too big). Been riding a 18" orange5 for the last 3 years which is totally spot on (70mm stem, xfusion hilow post), perfect size for me; however got itchy feet again, fancy something new and am trying to choose between a yeti asr5 or intense tracer. The med yeti looks a good fit, tho prefer the travel of the tracer, just got to decide on med/large!!
If i were you: get the 18" orange, great bike and it'll fit like a glove!

I'm an arsehair under 6ft - recently had two large CDales that were perfect fits. Both had bent top-tubes, a rush in particular was a real fits-like-a-glove bike. My BFe though is a med and a large would be miles too big. Also riding a med scandal atm which feels like an in-betweener. It's a tiny bit too small for xc riding, but I reckon a large would be too big.

Just some more datapoints - it's tough to generalise