Hiya!

I’ve posted about this before but it was ages ago and I’m sure things have changed since then.

I have a problem with my neck/shoulder that means I need to find a bike with a high stack height. I currently have a GT grade with a stupid stem on it but I still can’t get the bars high enough for what I need. I want to use this bike for road biking, but happy to build a bit of an all rounder as I have a big travel bike for MTB.

I’ve got decent parts to put on it, hunt wheels, Ultegra and so on but I’d also consider selling the Grade (in parts) and building up a hardtail MTB. I’ve got a set of Jones bars that I use on an old hybrid which I find really comfy, but I want something a bit faster and lighter.

So – happy to take suggestions. Can be either an MTB with slicks/Jones bars or a fast’ish road bike but regardless, the bars have to be higher than the saddle so I don’t need to tilt my head back. Any ideas?

To make things more difficult, I have quite a short torso and long legs – I’m 6ft2. Any ideas?

Cube Attains have high stack for their reach, my 58cm is 610mm and 388mm respectively, Cube seem to unusually measure stack to horizontal plane of top centre of the 15mm conical spacer.

https://www.cube.eu/en/2016/road-race/attain/cube-attain-gtc-pro-disc-greynflashred-2016/

I’m ~178cm (5’10”) with ~83cm cycling inseam, ~73cm BB to saddle height and stem now under all 30mm of standard spacers (so touching conical), stem 110mm -6 degree puts bars ~5cm below saddle, saddle post top centre to hoods ~78.5cm.

Appreciated – also doesn’t look an utter bastard like my grade now does. Will have a scoot about for a frameset

Fairlight do T (tall) models, but you may have to join the queue.

Litespeed T5G has a high stack height. it’s what I ride road on (it’s a gravel bike and that’s mostly what I use it for) when my back or neck is sore.

I have similar geometry wants being 187cm tall but only wanting 5cm of drop from an 82cm saddle height.

Some endurance bikes like synapse or Infinito have taller front ends, you should look at gravel bikes as well as the taller fork can give a taller front end.

If you can’t find anything going custom with one of the many steel or Ti builders will sort you out no problem.

Thanks for all the input folks, I’m now looking at all the suggestions.

I did consider steel but I wanted to test it out before I commit to a big spend on a frame that nobody will want to buy if I can’t ride it!

https://geometrygeeks.bike/

Buy a months subscription and get all the data you need for the bikes out there. Well worth it to populate your own spreadsheet for your own specific needs.

You’re a crooked, slightly broken bloke on a bike by the sounds of it. Forget about looking in any way cool and get thee one of those stem extenders on your current bike and embrace the ugly.
In return, you’ll enjoy the riding much more.

I put one on my Singular as a test last year before committing to custom. Rode it across Albania and Kosovo like that, and I don’t think anyone noticed 🙂

Will have a scoot about for a frameset

Try Bike discount.de all cubes surplus frames used to go there

Something like Jezza’s?

Marin 4 corners. Great bike!

Somethign like a singular griphon with risers?

Thorn cycles do some stuff that might be of interest, very individual styling.

Trek domane

Specialized diverge

It’s also worth bearing in mind the seat angle. I imagine discomfort is caused by how hunched you are, rather than absolute height, so opening that angle up (with a saddle further forwards) might help

Jones?

Age means I have much the same problems, not as flexible as I once was so find long distances result in discomfort.

My solution was to get an upsize frame (easy with compact geometry), pull the reach back with a short stem, and rather than use a steerer extender, put shopper style high rise bars on it. With that combination I can crack off a 200km day in comfort, not fast, but within audax time limits.

One advantage of riser bars is you can get as low on the bike as you can with dropbars. Seems counterintuitive, but the actual limitation for getting low is the top of the stem, not the bars. It just means an ungainly looking riding style which is not a concern when you’re plugging into a strong headwind.

I did play around with BikeCad to get what I wanted, a comfortable bike for rough roads and tracks, and discovered I’d invented a Victorian era bike right down to the 2″ tyres (that won’t surprise anyone).

See the similarity? 🙂

Definitely have a look at the Cannondale Synapse. They’re tall at the front and quite short. You could probably ride a size larger than normal to get more height at the front and still not have a crazy reach.

Thanks for all of this folks, much appreciated.

I’ve got the old airborne that currently has the jones bars on it. Also have a riser stem that offends me to look at, but my plan is to fit this to try to get comfy on it as per advice above. Once I have this position I can then see if I can find a road bike that suits those dimensions.

I’m definitely broken, no two ways about it. But I don’t want it to be the end of me riding, I’m only 40 and can’t face giving up!

Is this all our futures?

Icons homepage

… not sure I’m quite there yet though 🙂