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I'm looking to get a road bike and have been offered a good deal on a Boardman Team Carbon. The only issue to me is that it is a medium (55.5cm top tube, 53cm seat tube) and i'm dead on 182cm height with a 34" leg measurement.
Does anyone here have a comparable Boardman and if so what size have you got for your height?
Any help would be appreciated.
That would be the right ball park for you but you really need to try it...
....you really need to try it...
This.
Roadbike sizings are very specific and different across manufacturers* - I'm practically the same size as you according to your given measurements and ride a 57cm Bianchi. Its top tube is 5mm longer than yours and seat tube 10mm bigger, for example. I could have live with a 55 though, which is slightly smaller than yours.
*See what I mean?
I was 178 and had a Medium. Think i was in the middle of medium/large, but medium felt 'nearest'. I could have ridden both with some adjustment, but i'd rather have it slightly small than slightly too big.
Thanks all for your input. I'm going to have a look at the bike tonight to see how it feels, size-wise. Looks to be of good spec and apparently has never been ridden (insurance replacement).
I'll let you know how i get on.
I think you'll be at the upper end of it being OK there
34" legs at 6' height [BTW, well done on mixing imperial and metric, I always do that 🙂 ] may mean you get away with the shortish TT
i'm 180cm tall and ride a 570mm top tube boardman.
my other bike is a 555mm toptube.
I wouldn't want to go bigger or smaller respectively.
Strange, are you using a shorter stem on the Boardman? For me reach is the most important measurement on a road bike, whilst lots of manufacturers quote sizing differently I can't see why you'd want two bikes with a measured TT to be different (I can understand both are OK to ride but you say you don't want them bigger/smaller)
FW - One could be a compact frame? TT what bike is the second one?
pompino is 555 and it runs a 100mm stem. the BM a 90.
i'm not sure if you're not following me or i'm not following you.
570 is the longest i could ride, 555 the shortest (maybe 550 in reality).
Ah, 20mm margin of error with Stem length to compensate - thats where I was with mine. My 57 Bianchi went from 120mm stem to 100mm stem. Seat is in the middle. A 55 would have had the Seatpost high up and the 120 Stem remaining. Its a Sempre so the 'bars are low enough already for me to not want to be on top of them.
Sorry, it's too small. You will need the L size. Even adjusting the stem length won't help - it will steer like a boat. I'm 179 and ride a 55.5 top tube. My son rides a M Boardman Race and it's too small for me.
I partly agree with djaustin, stem wise less so, IMO stem length on a road bike has much more to do with fit than steering/handling, were as on a MTB is almost the other way round. But if you look at guys like Cavendish, Gilbert, Cancellara, most of peloton in fact e.c.t they all use 140mm stems. Boonen, even when he had a custom frame made up for him by specialized, he still used a 140mm stem. I doubt that they would do that if it was going to handle like a barge. On the road you don't "steer" quite in the same way as you do off road...if that makes any sense...probably not!
Anyway back to the OP's question I would say that the medium will be too small, you could probably get it to "fit" sort of but I think you would regret it. I have just bought a second hand boardman road frame, a large; I am a bit taller than you at 6'1-ish but the same leg measurement, I would say I was on the upper limit size wise, so think a large would be prefect for you.