Is my bike to small for me??

But pop…all 29ers look silly! I mean they were ridden by beardy niche whores, then became mainstream and have since been replaced by 27.5 gnarpoons…god you are like…soooo behind the times

.all 29ers look silly

you bastard……….. 😥

But ya loves me ton, now give me a big man cuddle 😀

Hi Renton,

Your bike is the right size for you. But it’s a 150mm travel bike; they’re meant to be ridden stood up and down a trail. The sizing/geometry reflects this

If you want a bike you can stretch out on, then get an XC 29er thats designed to for that,.

About the longer fork q, it may help but only if more saddle set back from the bb helps you feel comfy on the bike. Dtf’s right, could just be the bike isn’t the fit you expected but it’ll be good once used to it.

I’m another 183cm guy, and my TR is a fair bit shorter in reach than yours as well as it’s predecessor, but now I’m used to it I love it and have done my longest rides yet aboard it. That seatpost extension looks similar to mine (32″ inseam myself, see my link for extension), so I’ll go against the grain and suggest you get out on it for some time and get used to it !

http://s287.photobucket.com/user/saintjonny/media/2014-08/DC760EBF-2218-4CA9-9657-5C267D9061E4.jpg.html

I’m just under 6’5″ and had a large trance, it was a bit short for sure, I now have a large Yeti AsR5, and that is also a bit small. I’m now getting an XL 29er. I look like I’m on a bmx on a 26er

does this look small on me?

Renton = the next generation Hora?

Davidtaylforth has a point, the Trance is a medium/long travel trail/AM bike and should be ridden for purpose stood up.

I believe you commute on the bike don’t you Renton?….I reckon that is skewing your view on things, I reckon out on the trail that bike fits you fine when stood up and shifting weight around.

As someone else said, if you want a comfortable commuter bike maybe consider a large or XL 29er short travel machine.

I ride a 16 inch hardtail that has me constantly shifting my bum to the rear of the saddle and draping my wrists over the bars for more room on flat sections of trail, on that basis its way too small….but when things get interesting and I find some singletrack, jumps, drops, roots etc I stand up and centre myself in the middle of the bike and it feels perfect….and really that’s all that matters, I can live with feeling cramped on fire road climbs for a perfect fit when the trails demand I ride it properly.

As a 6’2″ guy With a 34″ inside leg have a couple of observations.
I used to have a size L 5 Spot and I was happy with the sizing, then went to my size L Bandit, which has a shorter top tube, and am happy with that.
I’m sure if I saw a pic of me on the bike I’d look all gangly and awkward but it feels ok.
Mind you, I use 780mm bars, which open out the arms and a slightly longer stem than you, no less than 70mm. Being a taller chap I think you have to take things like bar width and stem length as relative, and not necessarily just go for the shortest or widest as fashion dictates.

Also, you mention feeling like you are moving your weight off the back of the saddle constantly? May be teaching you to suck eggs but have you tried either tilting it ever so slightly forward, or trying a saddle with a slightly flared/wider back (Fizik saddles like the Nisene used to be like this) to give you something to ‘push’ against? Has worked for me in the past.

Your pic, it may be the way the shorts fit, but in the ‘full leg extension’ one although your leg has a slight bend with your heel on the axle, like convention dictates, it looks like your hip is rotated, although it may be an illusion. Is the seatpost definitely not a little too high?

Lastly, try not to overanalyse it. Once you get it feeling ‘right’ it will be right, regardless of what it looks like. You should see how daft my Klein looked back in the day, 130mm stem and 420mm seatpost at full extension!

If it feels fine on the trails but rubbish on the commute, I’d be looking to spend a few hundred quid on a commuter bike that fits and use the Giant for the purpose it’s intended.

False economy anyway riding a brand new 150mm travel MTB on the roads every day IMO as you’re wearing out some very expensive parts.

As a 6’2″ guy With a 34″ inside leg have a couple of observations.

Me too, although I’m more +34″ and for whatever reason modern mtb’s seem to have got short/small etc.

I demo’d a large Orange 5 650B, and decided that if I bought I’d be buying an XL – still plenty of clearance, would run with a 35mm stem and a 150mm Reverb. Pals’ have bought Canyon’s, Codeine’s and Capra’s – the large size ain’t big enough for me (most due to knees knocking the controls when out of the saddle).

I’m currently on 20″ frames, a Cube Stereo and 456Ti – and quite frankly, how they look when I’m riding them I don’t care.

Looking at the pics I’d forget all about what is supposed to be right according to Giant and try a few bits to see if it fits better.

As a play in the woods and launch off everything it looks ok, but for general riding and XC where it is important to go up as well as down I’d suggest your arms are a few degrees too close to your torso when on the bars.

For what it costs try a 80-90mm stem and rotate your bars to give differing levels of reach. Clearly it may/will put your hands in a funny position but it will give you a true indication of how stretched you need to be for it to feel right.

If it feels and rides good then sod the rule books and fashion trends imho.

The bike is suitable for some one 6 foot to 6 foot 4. How am I too big for it.

Because height is a really lazy and overly simplistic way of sizing a bike.

Options…
Layback post
Longer Stem
Hope the frame cracks and you can get a bigger replacement.

Although they seem to have ‘ relaxed’ all of their trail/ Enduro bikes from how things were five years ago, ( I’m 5’10 and ride a 2008 medium trance with a 140 fork) ,Giants have always felt a little ‘ short’ to me whilst other dimensions seem spot on.
As supplied mine came with a 100mm stem. I went for a wider bar / shorter stem option and originally bought a 50mm stem and the bike felt truly horrible. Simply changing the stem to a 70mm one made a night and day difference for me, it allowed me to get some weight over the front wheel and put me just a little mor comfortably more into the middle of the bike. I was quite surprised at how big a difference it made and it’s been with the 70mm stem and a 760 bar for five years now.
Presumably you don’t normally ride with your arms as straight as they seem in the pics ?
With regard your knee pain, although the pics do look a little odd as the lens is skewing a proper side on view, I’m tempted to suggest , that for general trail riding, maybe you saddle is half an inch too high ? Just maybe the photo though.

If it does feel too small you could always try selling it or swapping…

http://www.pinkbike.com/buysell/1722389/ 😉

So stevied what relevance does that have at all ??

The bike came as standard with a 70mm stem and 730mm wide bars.

I’ve changed the bars to 780mm as always and that helped.

I really don’t understand why it feels smaller than my old bike as the measurements are nearly exactly the same.

Seat angle on 5 spot was 73 , trance is 73.5
Head angle on 5 spot was 69 , trance is 67 so slightly slacker.

I don’t know you let armourers loose in the real world and this is what happens! You should stick to bangy things and singing “a-I’m an armourer, b-I’m an armourer, c-I’m an armourer”. You know the words, join on in 😉

Do a load of demos next time mate.

The bike IS fine size-wise.
Go back to a longer stem and all will be well, think about a dropper if you are struggling to get your body back over the saddle after a descent (or drop your saddle a bit like the ole days:-)

It takes time to adjust to new bikes mate (especially if you haven’t been riding much in between bikes.) Find some good trail and slowly find what it is good at.. pedal it loads for a coupla months and if you don’t like it after a thousand miles swap it for something else. 8)

Do these make it clearer………….

Ive also stuck the 70mm stem back on and it feels better.

Just go and ride the **** thing and stop fannying around taking pictures of yourself.

Find somewhere you can use the bike as intended and then have a rethink. Tootling around on it will tell you nothing.

Drop the saddle 5mm. Go ride. Biggest problem, as some have said, is probably just that you’re using a reasonably ‘aggresive’ bike for pootling. DO NOT base you rambling paranoia on commuting on the thing.

Try sliding the saddle back a bit?

Nice socks

That looks absolutely fine to me, for a trail bike. I wouldn’t want to commute on it but that’s got less to do with size and more to do with just about everything else.

‘I’ve got this bike I really like. It rides nice but my baggy gear gets caught on the saddle so I changed the stem and now it’s horrible. Looks ace leaning up against the wall though. What should I do? Leave it cause it looks fab or change it back because it’s borderline unridable?’

Stop messing with it you big Mary and ride it. If it’s horrible with the short stem on then the longer stem it is. Drop your seat at the top of steep tech to enable you to clear it without getting hung up on it. If you don’t want to stop then save up for a dropper post. A photo of you standing over the bike would have been helpful.

I reckon that just needs riding now. Forget what went before , just ride it, maybe you’ll find yourself rolling the bar back and forth, or altering shock / fork pressures and stuff, but looks ok size wise.. Focus on the ride , not the bike and too many ‘what ifs’.

Cheers for all the replies.

I have loads of bikes over the past 5 or 6 years and never struggled to get thrm comfy or dialled in as much as I am with this one.

It doesn’t look that bad to be fair. To a certain extent, top tube length is personal preference. That bike is probably a bit shorter (for you) than many others but it’s not a deal breaker and if it’s comfortable then just ride the thing.

I’ve just got the same bike (but in medium) and I will concede that it did take me a while to get used to.
There is something ‘different’ about how Giant do their bikes compared to the previous Treks, On-Ones, Ragleys, Saracens, GTs and Spesh’s that I’ve owned.

It came down to mindset, the bike is the right size for me (according to Giant) as yours is for you….so have faith in a proven suspension design, good build quality and known quantity components. You’re not trying out a start-up brand here, as others have said focus on the off road ability of the bike not the commuting comfort and let it do what it was designed for….you’ll find it’s actually pretty good!

Yep cheers

I should point out that I bought the bike second hand so never had the chance to demo.

I was always going to buy my next bike second hand so did some research and compared the geometry of lots of bikes against my five spot.

Apart from the longer reach and shorter seat tube the trance came up almost the same but with newer angles but since I’ve had it it hasn’t felt right yet. Something must have got lost in translation somewhere.

My five spot could do everything I wanted. I could commute on it to work but the detour off on the way home into the woods and do some trails.

The Trance is proving harder and slower to commute on but is near enough the same if not faster in the woods, in fact I’ve come top 5 on strava on a track I’ve never done before on the trance.

My problem now is that I need a bike predominantly to commute on and then also able to through around the woods.

How do I get the trance to be that one and only bike??

EDIT: The shock has blown so I need to get it into my local Giant dealer to get sorted.

How do I get the trance to be that one and only bike??

I tend to think n+1 is bullshit, but in this case it’s just not going to happen.

How do I get the trance to be that one and only bike??

By getting on it and riding it without worrying about the fact that it isn’t technically the ‘right’ tool for the job. N+1 is only applicable if you can afford/justify it. If you can only afford/justify one bike then make sure it’s a bike that you want to ride.

from the photo’s it clearly looks too small (like you’re riding a bmx).Increasing stem length etc aren’t going to solve it. It’s just looks too small for you.

My problem now is that I need a bike predominantly to commute on and then also able to through around the woods.

That’s a HT at best, not a bike that’s too short for you and with oodles of suspension.

140mm isn’t oodles is it ?

Unless you turn them into hybrid-like things, MTBs are rubbish for commuting on. My Spitfire (which is a really great pedalling 6″ full-sus) is brilliant up, down and along on the trails but turgid on tarmac. My Soul is a little better but not a lot.

If I didn’t have a Brompton then I’d buy a long seatpost for my BMX and use that as a cheap singlespeed rather than wear out an expensive chain, cassette, chainring, tyres, etc etc. At least the BMX has tyres that roll properly on tarmac!