Post Punk Kitchen Forum

A friend of a friend is selling his bike, and I'm thinking about buying it. However, I am TOTALLY unschooled in the mystic arts of cycling, so I have what is probably a dumb question:

This guy is 5''10", and I'm about 5'7". The bike is obviously fitted to him, so is this a problem? I mean, as far as I imagine, everything is adjustable on a bike, no? So I should be able to fit this bike to my frame, right?

Thank you. This concludes today's episode of painfully-obvious-questions.

Hard to say just on height alone as arm/leg/torso length all are factors. But if the frame is too large for you it will never really fit well. It also matters what type of riding you plan on doing. Around town you probably could pull off a larger frame as long as you feel comfortable with the top tube height.

What kind of bike? What kind of riding? If you can straddle the top tube without literally resting on your crotch, you can likely make it work.

TRY RIDING IT BEFORE YOU BUY IT.
and yeah, the crotch/top tube test is important.

Also top tube length / reach. If the top tube is too long you will never be properly comfy.

try it out. if it is cheap and fits you then buy it. Before i started biking everyday i bought a pretty heavy terrible bike for 50 bux. I road it almost everyday and then upgraded a year later to a semi decent but new bike that I still love and ride everyday. just dont buy a $500 bike and then never ride it

Thanks for all the info, I guess it wasn't such a silly question after all!

After all the above, I ended up suggesting that they sell it to another interested party. It's not in shape for even a test drive right now, so better safe than sorry I guess.