I’ve found a 16.5″ Trek Single Track similar to the one shown above, I’m looking to refinish and build for a light dirt/single track bike packing bike. My preference was to use some alt bars, like the velo orange crazy bars, but the top tube on this nearly the same as my road bike. Would you think this a 16.5″ too small for legs/torso proportionate 5’7 man?
Alternative is to use a dirt drop bar, like the Salsa chow chipper. Geo below
Everything about 90s MTB geometry is super messed up.
Is that saddle at the correct height? If so then I would stay that’s fine for you. The effective length of the stem is really short because of the swept back bars. If you’re hands wind up further from the bars that slows steering which is desirable for these kinds of bikes.
You wind up further out over the front axle depending on how you ride it.
In the 1990s they just adapted road bike geometry to mountain bikes and called it a day. The geo on this is more or less the same as a touring bike from the era and not far from a pure road bike. Performance riders from the road world thought a ass up head down position was performance so we wound up with the dumb saddle to bar drop.
More or less anything goes with these. it’s good that these used the same head tube across a range of bikes because the head tube winds up higher on this than it does on an 18. I think the lugs were expensive so… Anyhow the saddle to bar drop here looks better than normal. Having the handlebar touch points further from the center of the steering axis seems good.
OldIllustrator5861 on
I have this exact frame and threadless fork in an 18”, converted to a single speed. I thought it was going to be too small, but compared it to my
Titanium gravel bike and it’s fine. I’m 5’11 with a 32 inch inseam. I have decent amount of exposed seatpost with a riser stem off ebay and handlebars from Crust with a decent rise as well.
Really fun bike…using it for cruising around town with surly extra terrestrials 26×46 set up tubeless. Planning some off-road bikepacking in the future with some sim works super yummy’s in 2.2
shlem on
very handsome! love the bike
batpot on
Dude, where’s your spokes?
ikickbabiesballs on
Yeah I am not a 14 spoke dude lol.
aretheygood4bikingon on
My general approach to older mtbs is just to size by the effective top tube length, with a little bit of an eye to stack (I can tolerate a solid amount of saddle/bar drop, and don’t tend to like my bars above my saddle, so YMMV there) and just basically ignore the “size.” MTB sizing from back then is effectively useless at this point because – hopefully, at least – you’re not going to be running a 125mm stem.
Typical size guides of the time would have had me on a ~18”, but I have bikes that fit comfortably ranging from 20-22”. I end up with less standover clearance, obviously, but I guess my legs are long enough to make that basically irrelevant outside of riding really burly shit anyway.
7 Comments
I’ve found a 16.5″ Trek Single Track similar to the one shown above, I’m looking to refinish and build for a light dirt/single track bike packing bike. My preference was to use some alt bars, like the velo orange crazy bars, but the top tube on this nearly the same as my road bike. Would you think this a 16.5″ too small for legs/torso proportionate 5’7 man?
Alternative is to use a dirt drop bar, like the Salsa chow chipper. Geo below
https://preview.redd.it/sx3i95j1h3dd1.png?width=603&format=png&auto=webp&s=24d0a23d35ff149e6f138dd80addffb45771a151
Everything about 90s MTB geometry is super messed up.
Is that saddle at the correct height? If so then I would stay that’s fine for you. The effective length of the stem is really short because of the swept back bars. If you’re hands wind up further from the bars that slows steering which is desirable for these kinds of bikes.
You wind up further out over the front axle depending on how you ride it.
In the 1990s they just adapted road bike geometry to mountain bikes and called it a day. The geo on this is more or less the same as a touring bike from the era and not far from a pure road bike. Performance riders from the road world thought a ass up head down position was performance so we wound up with the dumb saddle to bar drop.
More or less anything goes with these. it’s good that these used the same head tube across a range of bikes because the head tube winds up higher on this than it does on an 18. I think the lugs were expensive so… Anyhow the saddle to bar drop here looks better than normal. Having the handlebar touch points further from the center of the steering axis seems good.
I have this exact frame and threadless fork in an 18”, converted to a single speed. I thought it was going to be too small, but compared it to my
Titanium gravel bike and it’s fine. I’m 5’11 with a 32 inch inseam. I have decent amount of exposed seatpost with a riser stem off ebay and handlebars from Crust with a decent rise as well.
Really fun bike…using it for cruising around town with surly extra terrestrials 26×46 set up tubeless. Planning some off-road bikepacking in the future with some sim works super yummy’s in 2.2
very handsome! love the bike
Dude, where’s your spokes?
Yeah I am not a 14 spoke dude lol.
My general approach to older mtbs is just to size by the effective top tube length, with a little bit of an eye to stack (I can tolerate a solid amount of saddle/bar drop, and don’t tend to like my bars above my saddle, so YMMV there) and just basically ignore the “size.” MTB sizing from back then is effectively useless at this point because – hopefully, at least – you’re not going to be running a 125mm stem.
Typical size guides of the time would have had me on a ~18”, but I have bikes that fit comfortably ranging from 20-22”. I end up with less standover clearance, obviously, but I guess my legs are long enough to make that basically irrelevant outside of riding really burly shit anyway.