A couple of quick questions for those of you with more experience than I have in these flat handlebar thingies…
I'm considering buying an Avanti Blade 8 (with Nexus-8 hub gears) for commuting, to save my better bikes for weekend use.
I’m very particular about the size of my road bikes, and like the handlebars to be in fairly specific positions relative to the seat/bottom bracket, depending on what the bike’s to be used for. In general, I size my bikes by top-tube, as everything else is fairly adjustable.
Now of course my sizing to date is predicated on drop bars, where my usual hand position is on the corners of the bars or on the tops of the hoods. One imagines that sizing a flat bar bike the same way as my roadies would mean that the bars are at the same spot as the tops, implying that I’d be fairly upright. Should I go an extra couple of centimetres in TT length to get a sort of compromise tops/corners/hoods position? I’d imagine that this would result in the frame being rather on the big size, and thus mean that I can’t get the bars as low as I like…
I’m thinking a frame much the same size as what I’d do in a roadie (55 square), is the go, but with a stem a centimetre or so longer… Maybe a 12 rather than a 10. I do wish the bike makers would publish proper cad drawings of their bikes.
What are people’s thoughts? Also, what are people's thoughts on the Blade 8?
Cheers,
Suzy
I'm considering buying an Avanti Blade 8 (with Nexus-8 hub gears) for commuting, to save my better bikes for weekend use.
I’m very particular about the size of my road bikes, and like the handlebars to be in fairly specific positions relative to the seat/bottom bracket, depending on what the bike’s to be used for. In general, I size my bikes by top-tube, as everything else is fairly adjustable.
Now of course my sizing to date is predicated on drop bars, where my usual hand position is on the corners of the bars or on the tops of the hoods. One imagines that sizing a flat bar bike the same way as my roadies would mean that the bars are at the same spot as the tops, implying that I’d be fairly upright. Should I go an extra couple of centimetres in TT length to get a sort of compromise tops/corners/hoods position? I’d imagine that this would result in the frame being rather on the big size, and thus mean that I can’t get the bars as low as I like…
I’m thinking a frame much the same size as what I’d do in a roadie (55 square), is the go, but with a stem a centimetre or so longer… Maybe a 12 rather than a 10. I do wish the bike makers would publish proper cad drawings of their bikes.
What are people’s thoughts? Also, what are people's thoughts on the Blade 8?
Cheers,
Suzy