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Should I ride a large?

- seb

Turbo Monkey
Apr 10, 2002
2,924
1
UK
I'm 6'1-6'2, and I've always bought medium bikes. Not sure why I did on my first one (maybe it was all that was available?) but I never saw the need to change, and have never even really tried a bigger bike.

For my next bike, should I buy a large? Or at least try one out first?

What are the pros/cons? Should I just stick to what I know?
 

mccdh

Monkey
Sep 9, 2008
181
0
Comox
I guess it depends what you're really comfortable with. What are you on now..take that geometry and decide whether you want a longer bike, taller bike etc. I know longer/lower would be better for downhill because it is more stable, but if you are more likely to throw the bike around in the jumps then maybe a smaller bike suits you better...try some bikes out. But judging by your size im 5-11 and I feel like I could go to a Large dh frame, So youre probably likely to be a large
 

MDJ

Monkey
Dec 15, 2005
669
0
San Jose, CA
I'm 6'2" and I can't imagine how people my size ride mediums for DH. I guess it works for some people, but definetley not for me. Even some larges feel small for me.
 

SthFRider

Monkey
Apr 16, 2008
218
0
Atlanta,Ga
I would defiantly go with a large. My first DH rig was a medium. Im 6'3". Just got a large TR 450 and love it. The large has been amazing its really improved my riding a lot.
 

- seb

Turbo Monkey
Apr 10, 2002
2,924
1
UK
OK, lots of people saying I should ride a large, which I kinda knew already. But WHY should I ride a large? In what way will it improve my riding, what will I notice different? Presumably there's shortcomings too, such as tight switchbacks if you have a longer wheelbase? Not to mention the fact that it might not fit sideways in my van any more! :D
 

Uncle Cliffy

Turbo Monkey
Jan 28, 2008
4,490
42
Southern Oregon
OK, lots of people saying I should ride a large, which I kinda knew already. But WHY should I ride a large? In what way will it improve my riding, what will I notice different? Presumably there's shortcomings too, such as tight switchbacks if you have a longer wheelbase? Not to mention the fact that it might not fit sideways in my van any more! :D
Firstly, I'm 6'2" myself. The main thing I noticed was stability. I had a medium that still stands as one of my favorite bikes, but if I was pushing it in "blurred" sections of trail, the bike was a handfull. Wheelbase counts for a lot.

After that, I realized I didn't bash my knees on my handlebars & stantions with a large. For what it's worth, I've ridden a few larges over the last couple years and I really like the cockpit on my 951. It's a smaller large, but I can really toss the bike nicely when needed, but it's still stable at speed. A good balance.
 

al-irl

Turbo Monkey
Dec 9, 2004
1,086
0
A, A
Id at least try a large. Im 5 11 and used to ride mediums and medium/smalls untill i got my sunn radical the medium/small was tiny so i went for the medium/large which has a huge top tube. It felt so much better straight away. Much easier to maneuver as i wasn't cramped in the cockpit. I could sprint better as my knees weren't banging the bars. More stability at speed too. Ive a large Makulu now and its about 10mm shorter than the sunn was and it fits me like a glove. Recently I had a loan of a large framed 05 Izumi (my makulu was out of action)and when i owned one i had the medium frame. The large was miles better, I had way more control and my weight seemed to be more balanced on the bike. Although it was a while since ive ridden my old izumi but it defenitly felt like a much better experience than when I had mine
 

819

Monkey
Mar 12, 2003
143
0
I'm 6.0 and the biggest difference I notice is in long corners, in high speed and on high speed jumps. Predictability while going fast is the biggest difference. I find that I have more room to settle in and relax on longer corners. For high speed again the bike is less nervous when I start to go fast. High speed jumps was where I noticed the biggest difference. On long fast flights on my mediums I found that I had a tedency to drop the front or rear end early. I would get kicked one way or another. The large feels, once again, more predictable.

The trade offs are that you do need to muscle the bike much more with a large. The sweet spot on small corners gets really small.

I used to ride mediums to keep a smaller wheelbase because my local terrain is pretty tight. I swapped because of the issues I was having at faster races. I would stand by the down sides of going with a large. I even started this season on a smaller bike (due to budget constraints) and had to find something larger half way through the season. It was just too sketchy when I started moving faster.

Edit after the fact: Sorry I always hate it when I read these posts because they are aways relative to what you are riding.

Medium 08 Devinci Wilson - Great in tight stuff, but had the problems stated above when going fast.
Medium 07 Glory - Great in tight stuff, but had the problems stated above when going fast.
Large Intense M6 - felt great
(Current bike) Large 08 Giant Glory - the right size but the length does feel slugish. Still worth while.

I hope this gives some perspective.
 
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Kanye West

220# bag of hacktastic
Aug 31, 2006
3,740
470
For most bikes I ride a large and I'm 6'-6'1. Some larges even feel small on me. The next bike I'm getting is a medium though, but it has a 47.5" WB. 47-48" WB is the key measurement for me, assuming a normal length CS and a slack HA.
 

BikeFan84

Monkey
Oct 27, 2004
302
0
D-Ville
6'3" here and I ride a medium, however it has a 23.6 inch top tube. I like to run around that however the new large bikes now are running 24, which I think feels comfortable to me. I found the wee little bit extra top tube makes the bike feel more stable. I was able to move around more on the bike and it felt way better in the air. No matter what the size I try and keep the relation of the bars and pedal similar, on all my bikes, feels as if it makes more of a difference to me than other portions of the geometry.
 

dump

Turbo Monkey
Oct 12, 2001
8,195
4,419
- seb sometimes your questions make me laugh. Try it already! There is no risk. Borrow a friend's bike. Try one at the demo day at a big race.

No amount of writing on an internet forum is going to take the place of seeing how it works for you.
 

Leppah

Turbo Monkey
Mar 12, 2008
2,294
3
Utar
I'm 6'1 and i ride a large. I like the length of the bike. Feels more stable. Plus, i tend to ride back a bit. With a medium i'd feel like i was too far off the back of the bike, almost like the rear wheel was directly beneath me. If i was standing up to crank, i'd hit my knees on the bars. I like the larger Dh bikes.
 

William42

fork ways
Jul 31, 2007
3,908
634
well, let me be the first to advise the opposite. I went from a large canfield lucky (with a huge wheelbase, 49inches) to a medium session 88 (~45) and I couldn't be happier. its a huge performance upgrade in literally every part of the trail. Its an extension of my body now, and I can use my arms far more effectively as suspension and pump the terrain much better now. I'm 6'1" normally, 6'2" when I don't slouch. Literally the only section that I give an edge to a larger bike is in straight, steep, chunder sections, and since you shouldn't be using your brakes for that stuff anyway, you just deal with it on a slightly smaller bike. In corners, you can compress your body better (or I can) and use my arms to pump things way better on a smaller bike. In rocky sections, I can muscle the bike better and pump anything and everything I want to. The front end comes up easier when I need to manual. If I want to just plow, it still does fine.
 

matsO

Monkey
Aug 26, 2006
139
0
I would assume you ride downhill for the speed and the jumps. With the right size you can go faster with more confidence! You can put weight on the front without feeling like you are going OTB.

The drawbacks such as (mentally) not as fast in switchbacks are not as big as all the benefits.

William42: I think you are a special case :) the canfield was probably too big for you. The Large canfield sounds more lika a normal XL, but who knows, there are no standard in bike sizes, duh!
 
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istratetm

Chimp
Jan 19, 2009
78
0
@mats0 that is the thing i like when riding a bigger frame. put the weight on the front with no worry of being ejected. i can load the bike better plus it sits better at speeds. anyway is a matter of Reach not TT length when choosing the size.
 

matsO

Monkey
Aug 26, 2006
139
0
@istratetm: exactly!

Lets introduce a standardised way of sizing frames to which all manufacturers must comply!

lets call it reach :thumb:
 

captainspauldin

intrigued by a pole
May 14, 2007
1,263
177
Jersey Shore
Firstly, I'm 6'2" myself. The main thing I noticed was stability. I had a medium that still stands as one of my favorite bikes, but if I was pushing it in "blurred" sections of trail, the bike was a handfull. Wheelbase counts for a lot.

After that, I realized I didn't bash my knees on my handlebars & stantions with a large. For what it's worth, I've ridden a few larges over the last couple years and I really like the cockpit on my 951. It's a smaller large, but I can really toss the bike nicely when needed, but it's still stable at speed. A good balance.
Totally agree w/Uncle Cliffy. I'm 6' 4", my shocker is on the shorter side for most Larges(46.9" stock WB, about 47" with the NSB dropouts), and the stability increase over my old shorter bike, was awesome.. Granted the extra travel and dual-link rear suspension had a lot to do with that also. Def. a big confidence booster for me, it does suffer on the tighter switchbacks, but those tighter switchbacks are generally low-speed anyways, where I ride at least. I switched bikes w/a buddy that rides a short Medium and I was surprised at how unstable/sketchy I felt, even my buddy following me on my bike was saying I looked like I was hanging on for dear life(we were going down a high speed rocky/loose fireroad).
 

William42

fork ways
Jul 31, 2007
3,908
634
William42: I think you are a special case :) the canfield was probably too big for you. The Large canfield sounds more lika a normal XL, but who knows, there are no standard in bike sizes, duh!
I don't think so - it could have been, but it felt pretty natural. I'm not bad or particularly uncomfortable riding large bikes, and I've been riding larges for a long time. I owned a large glory as well, and my roommates on a large stab, and those are both 47-48inch, and I have a super long reach. I just don't like having my arms straight unless I'm in the extended part of pumping, and I find it happens too frequently on large bikes where I'm not pumping, such as corners and steeps.
 

- seb

Turbo Monkey
Apr 10, 2002
2,924
1
UK
What I find surprising/odd, is that (let's ignore girls for now), I'd guesstimate that 90% of the male DH population fits into a range of 5'6-6'2 (ish). So a range of 8". Arm/leg length are pretty much proportional to height.

Yet larges are typically only 1" bigger than mediums, which are in turn only 1" bigger than smalls...
 

marshalolson

Turbo Monkey
May 25, 2006
1,770
519
so you are talking of a 8" range heigth wise, which should correlate to a 8" range wingspan wise.

which is 4" from centerline to fingers. i would argue that a 6'2'' man will have at least 2" broader shoulders than a 5'6'' man, so 1" for each side of center-line, which would create roughly a 3" difference per arm in length.

so once you combine a possibly 10mm longer stem, 1-2" wider bar, and the angles involved that shrinks to about 2" of reach difference.

seems about right to me?
 

bizutch

Delicate CUSTOM flower
Dec 11, 2001
15,928
24
Over your shoulder whispering
I don't think so - it could have been, but it felt pretty natural. I'm not bad or particularly uncomfortable riding large bikes, and I've been riding larges for a long time. I owned a large glory as well, and my roommates on a large stab, and those are both 47-48inch, and I have a super long reach. I just don't like having my arms straight unless I'm in the extended part of pumping, and I find it happens too frequently on large bikes where I'm not pumping, such as corners and steeps.
quoted for tons of innuendo!:brows:
 

MarkDH

Monkey
Sep 23, 2004
351
0
Scotland
I'm 5'10 and take a medium in pretty much everything, including bikes. If I was two or three inches taller I would definitely go for a frame with a longer top tube. Personally, if it came down to it, I'd rather have a frame that was slightly too long than slightly too short for the stability and other reasons mentioned above.
 

Kanye West

220# bag of hacktastic
Aug 31, 2006
3,740
470
Look at the bikes of all the top riders. Atherton, Minnaar, Peat, Barel. All really damn long. Granted, they're tall riders, but you don't see them cramped onto bikes that are too small.
 

rockofullr

confused
Jun 11, 2009
7,342
924
East Bay, Cali
Look at the bikes of all the top riders. Atherton, Minnaar, Peat, Barel. All really damn long. Granted, they're tall riders, but you don't see them cramped onto bikes that are too small.
I remember being surprised by how short ol' Sammy's tt is and he's been known to ride kinda fast.
 

big-ted

Danced with A, attacked by C, fired by D.
Sep 27, 2005
1,400
47
Vancouver, BC
FYI Seb, the Wilson's have pretty short TTs for a given size. I have a friend here who I'd guess is about 6' and went from a medium to a large (Wilson) and claims to be far more comfortable.
 

Kanye West

220# bag of hacktastic
Aug 31, 2006
3,740
470
I remember being surprised by how short ol' Sammy's tt is and he's been known to ride kinda fast.
He's also like 5'9-5'10. Also TT measurements are completely irrelevant in the world of DH - assuming fairly average head angles and chainstay lengths, you can use the wheelbase measurement to get a good ballpark idea of fit.

I think the Demo works well for him with the shorter back end because he doesn't have to lean as far back to get over the back end of it. The taller 6'+ riders can lean WAY the hell further back and still get the benefits of the stability from the long swingarms.
 

Gex

Turbo Monkey
Oct 29, 2004
1,112
0
Seattle
I'm 6'1 and currently ride all mediums aside from a long ht. I like to be able to throw the bike around. As far as stability my Demo feels just as stable as large dh frames i've ridden in chunder/long open sections.

Although I do kind of wish I had gone with a large on my Reign, but it still works just fine and is a super fun bike.
 

Uncle Cliffy

Turbo Monkey
Jan 28, 2008
4,490
42
Southern Oregon
I'm 6'1 and currently ride all mediums aside from a long ht. I like to be able to throw the bike around. As far as stability my Demo feels just as stable as large dh frames i've ridden in chunder/long open sections.

Although I do kind of wish I had gone with a large on my Reign, but it still works just fine and is a super fun bike.
You're 6'1" and ride a medium Reign? That's really small. I demoed a large at 6'2" and felt like I was right over the rear wheel on everything. Are you doing lots of climbing/XC length rides, or is it a playbike?
 

rockofullr

confused
Jun 11, 2009
7,342
924
East Bay, Cali
I'm 6'1 and currently ride all mediums aside from a long ht. I like to be able to throw the bike around. As far as stability my Demo feels just as stable as large dh frames i've ridden in chunder/long open sections.

Although I do kind of wish I had gone with a large on my Reign, but it still works just fine and is a super fun bike.
Seems to me that traditional DH wisdom was "when in doubt go with the bigger bike" but I feel like this is changing.
 

MinorThreat

Turbo Monkey
Nov 15, 2005
1,630
41
Nine Mile Falls, WA
I think it really depends on the frame. I'm 6'-1" and the past three bikes I had were mediums (Yeti AS-X, Transition Gran Mal, Transition Blindside). When I first went to mediums, the folks at Yeti recommended it so that it would center me in the cockpit better. On one hand, Shaums March metioned to me when he saw me on the AS-X, that he thought I looked a bit cramped on it and that maybe a Large would have been a better choice with that bike. On the other hand, it felt good to me and was really maneuverable and poppy.

Since then I stuck with that formula until it came time to get my 303R. I pored over numbers for a month, comparing the large and medium 303Rs to my Blindside and to the TR450 (which I was also considering). When I got the reach and stack numbers from Yeti and saw that the numbers for the Large 303R were much closer to the medium Transitions than their larges, I went with the Large this time . . . and haven't regretted it yet.

I think in the end, it would be helpful if all of the frame makers would include reach and stack into their specs.
 

Rhubarb

Monkey
Jan 11, 2009
462
238
TT length seems a waste of time on DH bikes. Surely Seat angle will affect the TT measurement? I am looking at a Wilson frame and noticed the TT was short, when I checked the seat angle I noticed it seemed steeper than most other DH bikes, I expect this will shorten the TT measurement? The wheelbase seems comparable but a little shorter than some which alot of people term "long feeling". So it would make sense to have a universal measurement like reach, especialy since most of us dont get to sit the bikes we are considering.

Seb - I will send you a PM to get some thoughts on the WIlson frame.
 

descente

Monkey
Jul 30, 2010
430
0
Sandy Eggo
i dunno, its just my opinion but i think top tube length is more important than overall wheelbase. sure seat angle can change the number, but i feel like the distance between the seat and bars is pretty much the "core" measurement of a bike and determines how it feels. if you put a 6'7" dude on a small bike, even if the CS, HA, SA angles are all spot on it will be too short. when i rode smaller bikes (~21" top tubes) i would find that on really really steep trails i could get as low and far back as possible but then the bike itself would be too short for my center of gravity and start to endo under me. my nuts would literally be riding on the tire but i couldn't keep from lifting the back tire.

getting good at switchbacks and feeling stable while going fast is more tied to learning how to move your body and control your center of gravity, not so much the wheelbase of your bike.