What Size Bicycle Is Right For My Height?

When you lot are new to cycling the first question y'all ask yourself is"What size bike do I need?". Information technology is non a complex question, simply it is one that tin can cause a lot of fright and sleepless nights! There seem to exist a million bike frame sizes. At that place is a lot of advice, so nosotros have decided to bring information technology all hither for you lot in a simple format with a handy cycle size chart to aid guide yous.

Our piece of cake-to-read size chart will show you lot the cycle size options for your summit. We will then give you a rundown on a few simple tips to help ease your mind well-nigh bike frame size. Finally, we volition break down some myths and give you real data so you can go into whatever shop and know what yous are being told is truthful — not just a sales pitch.

Bicycle Frame Size Chart – Bank check the Bike Size in an Easy Style
- Mountain Wheel Size Chart
- Hybrid Bike Size Chart
- Road Bike Size Chart
- BMX Bike Size Nautical chart
Does Wheel Size Bear on Sizing? Is a Bike Wheel Size Chart Needed?
A Separate Women'due south Bike Size Nautical chart is Not Needed
Child's Wheel Sizing Tin can Exist Done in Diverse Ways
How to Measure Your Inseam Length
Bicycle Fit Calculators
What to Practice If You Got Your Bike Fit Wrong

Bike Frame Size Chart – Cheque the Bicycle Size in an Easy Manner

The simplest fashion to find out if a bike is the correct size for y'all is to await at our handy cycle frame size charts. We have cleaved these down into the various types of bike available.

man measuring the size of his bike frame

Mountain Bicycle Size Chart

Mountain bike sizing can exist affected past pause and your tire choices. So, brand sure you lot look at a tire size chart and endeavor a full-break mount bike for size before buying. For standard hardtails, our mountain wheel size chart should be a god send.

Your height		Your leg inseam		Suggested frame size
Feet/Inches	Centimeters	Inches	Centimeters	Inches	Size
iv`ten"-5`1"	148-158 cm	24-29"	61-73 cm	fourteen″	XS
5`ane″-five`v″	158-168 cm	25-30"	63-76 cm	15" / 16″	S
5`5″-five`9″	168-178 cm	26-31"	66-78 cm	16" / 17″	Thousand
5`9″-6`0″	178-185 cm	27-32"	68-81 cm	17″ / 18″	50
6`0″-half-dozen`3″	185-193 cm	28-33"	71-83 cm	eighteen″ / 19″	XL
6`1″+	193 cm+	29"+	73 cm+	20"+	XXL+

Not sure which mount bicycle to buy? Check out our mountain bicycle reviews.

Hybrid Bicycle Size Chart

A hybrid is your fastest style around town and yous'll find their sizes sit in-between road bike and mount bike sizing. We accept set this hybrid bike size chart in inches equally it is the almost common fashion to buy hybrid bikes, some fast models will be measured in centimeters similar route bikes.

Your height		Your leg inseam		Suggested frame size
Feet/Inches	Centimeters	Inches	Centimeters	Inches	Size
4`10"-5`1"	147-155 cm	24-29"	61-73 cm	14″	XS
5`1″-five`5″	155-165 cm	25-xxx"	63-76 cm	15"	Due south
5`5″-5`9″	165-175 cm	26-31"	66-78 cm	sixteen"	G
five`9″-6`0″	175-183 cm	27-32"	68-81 cm	17″	Fifty
six`0″-6`iii″	183-191 cm	28-33"	71-83 cm	18″	XL
6`1″+	191 cm +	29"+	73 cm+	nineteen″	XXL+

Not sure which hybrid bike to buy? Check out our hybrid bicycle reviews.

Road Wheel Size Nautical chart

Our road bicycle size chart volition work like a very simple road bike size calculator. Make sure your bicycle sizing is spot-on with this chart. You lot no longer need to wonder: "What size bicycle should I buy?"

Your height		Your leg inseam		Suggested frame size
Feet/Inches	Centimeters	Inches	Centimeters	Centimeters	Size
4`10"-v`one"	148-152 cm	24-29"	61-73 cm	47-48 cm	XXS
5`1″-5`5″	152-160 cm	25-xxx"	63-76 cm	49-50 cm	XS
5`five″-5`nine″	160-168 cm	26-31"	66-78 cm	51-54 cm	S
five`ix″-6`0″	168-175 cm	27-32"	68-81 cm	54-56 cm	M
half dozen`0″-half dozen`three″	175-183 cm	28-33"	71-83 cm	58-60 cm	L
half dozen`1″+	183-191 cm	29"+	73 cm+	62 cm+	40+

Not sure which road bicycle to buy? Bank check out our route bike reviews.

BMX Bike Size Chart

If you want to get rad downwardly at the skatepark or race track, this is a quick guide to getting the correct BMX size. BMX, unlike other wheel sizes, tin be changed by preference. The size will not biomechanically impede on y'all.

Your Height		Suggested Race BMX Size	Suggested Park BMX Size
Feet/Inches	Centimeters
<four'iv"	<132 cm	Micro	16" Wheel
4'ii″ – four'10"	127 – 148 cm	Mini	eighteen" Bicycle
4'6″ – 5'i″	137 – 155 cm	Inferior	20" Wheel xviii -19.5" toptube
5'0″ – 5'4″	152 – 163 cm	Expert	20" Bike 19.5- twenty.25" toptube
five'two″ – 5'6″	157 – 168 cm	Adept XL	20" Wheel 20.25 – 20.5" toptube
five'iii″ – 5'8″	160 – 173 cm	Pro	20" Wheel 20.5 – xx.75" toptube
5'7″ – 6'0″	170 – 183 cm	Pro 40	20" Bike 20.75 – 21" toptube
6'+	183 cm+	Pro XXL	20" Wheel 21"+ toptube

What you will see in these charts is that adult bikes are mostly measured by their bicycle frame size. Wheel size is a very of import metric if you are a kid because you need to be able to stand over your bike if you lot want to ride it, and wheels that are too big won't permit you exercise that.

Does Wheel Size Bear upon Sizing? Is a Bike Bicycle Size Chart Needed?

On road bikes and hybrids, no, equally these bikes will all have a similarly sized wheel. Still, on a mountain bike, the reply is yes. Mountains bikes now come in three different wheel sizes. You tin can find them with 26" wheels, 27.v" wheels, or 29" wheels. If all 3 take a fifteen" frame, there will be a height divergence between them due to their wheel size. Bike frames are measured from the middle of their lesser bracket to the end of their seat tube. Your bike axle height sets your bottom bracket height.

If nosotros accept the 26" wheel as the base of operations height, the axle height for a 27.5" wheel will be 0.75" college. If nosotros then look at the 29" bike, its axle will be 1.5" college. This is because the axle sits in the middle of your bike. We then split the difference in cycle height past half to go data on how much higher the axle sits.

A 15" frame will exist 15.75" on a 27.5" or 16.5" on a 29". Some manufacturers take worked on the mathematics and geometry to keep the differences closer than this. Others have not.The skilful news is, we have the option of knowing stack and attain, and this will tell us how close the fit is for you. Nosotros have more on stack and attain below.

A Separate Women'due south Bike Size Nautical chart is Non Needed

You might not believe it, but the charts above also work for women. They are all the perfect women'south bicycle sizes. We have been fed and then many tales about how women need specific bikes and kits. We take all heard the stories of women having a smaller torso than men, therefore needing smaller top tubes.

If you lot take a woman and a man of the same height, the human being will accept longer legs, and the women will accept a longer torso. Themythis purely anecdotal and is not helped by high heels and the cutting of women'southward trousers. It is a prevalent myth, and 1 that needs to dice. In that location are references below if you want to know more than.

The cloak-and-dagger to a women's fit is a women'south specific saddle. There is a caveat to this though: 10% of women take a pelvis shaped like a man's pelvis. What women need is a bicycle that fits, so don't be taken in by the "compress it and pink it" marketing. Trek, for instance, has sizing charts that don't change due to gender, merely they do pink bikes with a women'due south specific saddle.

The bicycle size charts are not the end of the story. You can farther dial your bike fit and size needed past knowing how to calculate your bike's saddle peak. Your saddle height is the near important contact point that you lot have with your bike.

Kid's Wheel Sizing Can Be Done in Diverse Ways

Getting the correct sized bicycle for your kid does not need to be a complicated process. Nosotros think this topic needs its own post and so nosotros wrote this kids bike size chart commodity that covers all aspects.

How to Measure Your Inseam Length

Measuring your inseam is pretty easy, and it is the beginning footstep in how to measure yourself for a bike. You will need four things: a hardback volume, a tape measurer, a friend, and yourself.

Observe a squeamish wall.
Stand up with your dorsum against the wall, every bit flat every bit possible and with no shoes or socks.
Place your feet shoulder width apart
Have your book and run it up to the top of your inner legs.
Get your friend to measure from the summit of the book to the flooring.
You accept your inseam length, and information technology will more than likely not be the same as your trouser leg measurement.

These steps will not only allow y'all to calculate your frame size, they will also allow you to mensurate your saddle height. The Greg LeMond method has been shown to exist pretty accurate here. What y'all exercise is take your inseam measurement in centimeters and multiply information technology by 0.833.

You then have this measurement and go up your bike's seat tube with your tape. Once yous have reached the magic number, this is where the top of your saddle should exist. The number for your saddle height is one of the near critical metrics for wheel sizing and fit.

You can then use your inseam to summate frame size by using some sums, or yous tin use one of the various online cycle fit calculators. If you want to know the sums then to notice your route bicycle frame size, accept your inseam length in centimeters and multiply it by 0.lxx. For a hybrid bike, take your inseam and multiply information technology by 0.69. For mountain bikes, take the same measurement and multiply 0.half dozen, you will then demand to change the centimeters into inches.

The calculation here will requite yous your bike'south frame size. Bike frame sizes are measured in the same manner for all styles of bicycle. To measure your bike'southward frame size, have a measuring tape and place the record in the center bolt of your bike'southward cranks. If information technology is simply the frame, this volition exist the heart point in the lesser bracket shell.

At present run the measuring tape up your seat tube. When you reach the end of the seat tube, you accept your frame size. It is fairly simple.

Bike Fit Calculators

When searching online for advice almost cycle sizing, y'all will come across bike fit calculators. The simplest bike size calculators volition use your height and inseam length. The frame size they give you volition so but exist taken from the wheel size charts we have posted higher up.

The more complicated versions of this figurer volition ask a lot of questions, including such questions as "what is your arm length?" To measure your arm length, yous will need your friend and tape mensurate again.

Stand up straight, with one arm out to your side level with your shoulder.
Clench your fist.
Get your friend to measure from the start of your collarbone to the middle of your clenched fist.

The measurement you accept just taken will be your reach. You will encounter many manufacturers now quote their bike'due south size in stack and reach. Some volition fifty-fifty have stack and attain on their bikes instead of frame size stickers.

Stack and reach is a smashing tool that can tell you lot how a cycle will fit. It enables you to escape the limitations of just using a single number for sizing purposes. It ways you tin can tell the difference between one manufacturer's "Medium" and another manufacturer's "Medium."

Your stack is the distance from the center point of your bottom bracket to the center betoken at the top of your bike frame's headtube. Your reach is the horizontal version of this distance. Information technology is a much more technical bike sizing method, just it is slowly condign the preferred method, especially amongst college end bikes.

Stack and achieve is the perfect number for how to determine bicycle size.

What to Practise If You Got Your Bike Fit Wrong

As a rule, if y'all sit down between ii sizes on a route or hybrid bike, become smaller. For a mount bike, go larger. That volition brand whatsoever future part changes easier.

Your bike comes made from many parts, and all of these parts tin can be changed to make a bike fit you better. Ane of the key ways to know if y'all have a problem is to mind to your body.

There is an erstwhile cycling rule that articulatio genus pain at the back of your leg means your saddle is too high. If you are having pain in the forepart of your knee, and then your saddle is as well low. You will discover that route cyclists generally have their seat too high. As with all rules, remember that these are just guides and non gospel.

When you are setting your saddle tiptop ever remember that y'all can change seat posts. Some seat posts supplied may be too small, and some may exist too long.

If your seat mail service is too short, it is a trip to a bike shop to sort the issue. If your seat mail is too long, all you demand to exercise is hack off a flake. Wear a mask if you're cutting carbon cobweb.

If you feel the accomplish is likewise much or as well cramped to your handlebars, then you can motility your saddle forward or backward. Look at your saddle runway, as they will have maximum lines for motility. Going across these lines will likely cause your saddle to snap.

If yous need to get beyond these lines, it might be worth irresolute your stem. You can change your stem to either a longer or a shorter stem. There will be an effect on the mode your bike handles, though. A shorter stalk will make your bike experience twitchier, and a longer stalk will make your bike feel more lethargic.