Hmm. Your spreadsheet is surprising for me.

My specs:
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Inseam: 78
Trunk: 66
Forearm: 34.5
Arm: 65
Thigh: 56.5
Lower Leg: 52
Sternal Notch: 143
Total Body Height: 173

Elbow-middle finger: 45.5

According to your spreadsheet, I should be on a 52cm effective top tube, 51cm seat tube, and a 11.1cm stem with a no setback seat post.

According to the competitive cyclist, I should be on a 55-55.5cm effective top tube, a 50.5-51cm seat tube, with a 11.2cm stem.

What gives with the extreme difference in effective top tube lengths? Do I have a weird body? For what it's worth I ride a bike with a 54.5cm top tube, a 68cm center of bottom bracket to saddle top (along seat tube), a 100mm stem, and a 1cm drop. I ride on top of the hoods unless I'm doing a climb (then I'll go into the drops).

Hi!

My first message to this forum...and i would like to ask is this saddle-pedalier seatback for the road or mtb-bike?

My rider data was:

Inseam: 84,5 cm
Elbow-middle finger: 48,3 cm
Flexibility:6
Saddle lenght: 27,8 (Selle San Marco Regale FX)

And results:

Flat- hadlebars 52,7 cm
Saddle height 75,1 cm
Saddle-handlebar drop 7,5 cm +-1
Saddle-pedalier seatback 8,2 cm??

All other measures is just that i have in my bike but seatback is almost 3 cm smaller in my bike now. So is this 8,2 cm to road or mtb-bike?

Thanks, Jani

This spreadsheet is a nice idea but lacks a little bit of accuracy.
Seat tube angle has a big influence on fit yet it is not accounted for in the spreadsheet.

For example, with a seat height of 75 and a setback of 8 (which the spreadsheet suggests in my case), actual vertical saddle height as measured from the bottom bracket is different.

Seat tube angle = 72 degrees: seat is at 71.3 cm vertical
Seat tube angle = 74 degrees: seat is at 72.1 cm vertical
Now this is a difference in height (Y) of almost 1 cm while setback (X) is given and remains the same. With longer legs this difference becomes bigger.

Now consider handlebar reach. This is a very complex calculation but the difference between a 72 degree and a 74 degree seat tube comes down to a difference in reach of about 2 cm. This means that, given the top tube remains the same, with a 74 degree seat tube the distance between your saddle tip and handlebars will be 2 cm longer than with a 72 degree seat tube. I think 2 cm is quite a big difference.

I do think this is easy to adjust and then you would have a great tool!

@daj

Try a see my comments in my the post on page 7.

_________________
Technical editor at Cykelmagasinet Denmark

My Simplon Pavo II

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I like it, it sounds like a good starter for newbie cyclists!
I'll definitely take a look at it.

Thank you for the spread sheet,it is a good starting point for the correct bike fit.
But I have a problem with the setback.It doesn't take into account the femur/tibia proportion.
For example : let's take 2 persons with identical inseam,upper body and flexibility.The result of the ss will be the same for both of them: they both need the same reach,setback,etc.
But person 1 has a shorter femur and a longer tibia. Person 2 has a longer femur and a shorter tibia. But,remember,the inseam (femur + tibia) is the same.Because of that, no 1 (short femur,long tibia) will need less setback and longer stem and no 2 (long femur,short tibia) will need more setback and shorter stem,so for both of them to have the same reach.

I noticed this problem in my case (short femur,long tibia),for my MTB (Trek 4300 frame). My numbers are:
inseam : 88 cm
arm : 49 cm
flex : 0
height : 182 cm (irrelevant)
shoe-size : 46
saddle length : 28
horizontal frame size : 58.3 cm
no setback seatpost

The setback recommended is 8.9 cm with a 8.4 cm stem. I have 5 cm setback with 12 cm stem. In this position I have knee over spindle.

I also have the saddle-hablebar drop = 1 cm with no sag,so about 3 cm while riding vs 8.4 +/-1 recommended, which brings me to the other thing I noticed : the recommended saddle-handlebar drop is the same no matter what the flexibility is,which I think is wrong.

Anyway,thank you for this ss,it's a good tool in finding a good position on a bike. With a few tweaks it can become an excellent one.