I'm thinking of retiring my best road bike after 8 years, and the builder I'm interested in has stock frames for which my preferred TT length sits between 2 sizes. I'm 5'8" and because I have short legs and a long torso and arms I ride compact 565mm TT frames (bespoke and off the shelf), which suits me just fine.
What I'm looking at has M @ 545 or L @ 565, however the large has a 556 seat tube, and the M @ 526.
If I went for the M how different handling is it likely to be if I used a 120mm stem to get back to the length I prefer with the standover I'd be happier with.
The other option is to replicate my current 8 year old frame as a bespoke frame build, but I'm happy to not spend the extra.
Any thoughts?
Medium with 120 stem; it's not really that long in road terms, just make sure it will be at the correct height.
That's what I thought, I've just always been a 100mm stem kinda guy...
A 120mm will be fine. I ride a 56.5+90mm, a 55.5+100mm and a 54.5+115mm. They all fit. If anything, I prefer the handling of the longer stem.
is the seat tube on the large actually too long for you to ride it ?
if not, I'd look at headtube lengths as presumably that's the only other difference between the 2
are the other angles on these new frames similar to the bike you already ride and like ? If not, no guarantee that you'll like a short stem on them anyway