My gf is 165cm, I'm 183cm. It's a size L Radon Cragger which she has ridden once for around 30km of gravel. The bike is nominally way too big for her but it still worked surprisingly well. We just lowered the dropper post most of the way down.
Would there be any problems if she took this bike bikepacking? No crazy trails, I'm thinking mainly double track gravel paths. Standover height seems to be working OK and reach shouldn't be a problem either, especially since I'm planning to put some swept back bars on this bike anyway. There's not much dropper left to be lowered down but I don't think that's too necessary for gravel.
Anything I'm not thinking of?
by again-and-a-gain
9 Comments
Her knees would hurt. That crank arm is comically large compared to her leg
A wrong sized bike will feel worse and worse the longer you ride it. Probably would not be enjoyable for her, eventually.
Doesn’t the cragger have a very large reach? How does she feel this? Maybe moving the seat a bit to the front will help her to mitigate back fatigue on long trips. From my experience, larger bikes are good for climbing, so maybe that’s a plus.
That’s for her to decide, but I’d recommend against it. My partner (160cm) and I (180cm) just finished a 1000km ride in NZ and her gravel bike was a size too big for her and gave her problems throughout the whole trip, even with flat bars, shorter stem, saddle slammed forward, and seat post down.
I toured on a too-big bike and it wrecked me up in ways I didn’t expect. It won’t be fun for anyone if she’s hurting the whole ride 🙁
If you can grip you can rip it so send it!
why would she try? if she didn’t take it to a shop for a new seat, seatpost, and handlebar… then see how it fits, a miserable trip is worse than no trip.
I would try it out on 2 back-to-back days with 8-hour rides (just day trips), then see how she feels afterwards.
If it’s the only bike available and she can ride 30km with no issues then maybe consider a trip with days that are moderate in length. I wouldn’t suggest she is going to enjoy long days on that bike and you don’t want her to start this sport with a bad experience.