Can't answer the fork question. Where is Gerard when we need him.

A friend of mine is your height and has a 56cm Soloist that seems to fit him perfectly in either position. I tend to think that a 54 cm is usually for someone a couple of inches shorter than yourself. You'd have to go to the LBS to try them out.

The 56cm frame may be more stable than the 54, but with the longer head tube you may have difficulty getting the bars low enough to work well. You will probably have enough trouble getting the bars low enough on the 54 cm frame, unless you go with a clip-on bar that has the pads mounted as low as possible, eg the new Hed's when they come out, Vision Tech, or 3t bio arms.

The 54 would probably work best as a dual purpose bike, especially since your current stem is tending towards the short side. The sweet spot for stems (IMO) is 110 - 130 cm.

Also, don't limit yourself to Cervelo. Here's a secret that no-one else knows, but you can do the same thing with any other road bike, by buying a seatpost that can be reversed. Amazing huh! You should also at least consider the trek lineup. The 56cm OCLV has a 56.2cm top tube, and the same functional headtube length (120mm non-integrated) as the 54cm Soloist (140mm integrated). So for essentially the same size bike, you have an extra 1.5 cm of top tube length, or you can go down a size, get a shorter head tube and lower bar position, while keeping the same toptube length as the 54cm soloist.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

I wouldn't mind hearing some more opinions yea/nay about this. I do recall several reputable posters saying that there is a significant difference between the Soloist and other road bikes in terms of weight distribution, etc. in the forward position.

What you're dealing with is a bike with compact frame geometry, much like Giant TCR, etc. All kinds of debate as to advantages/disadvantages or to whether there is really any difference at all. These bikes might tend to lend themselves a bit better for a forward multi-sport 75/76 position than does conventional road geometry. Hence that's probably why Cervelo designed the Soloist this way.

Some people claim that the Soloist might feel a bit twitchy handling. Can't comment on that as I haven't spent enough time riding one. That doesn't have anything to do with compact geometry since I can't say that my TCR feels twitchy.

What, I'm not reputable???

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

Whoa, I never said that--in fact, if anything, you might infer that I was giving you credit for being reputable yourself by neutrally comparing your opinion to those of reputable posters.

I'll agree with JasonK. The 54 Soloist will probably be the better way to go, but bear in mind that Cervelo tends to run some of the shortest headtubes in the biz. If you are short of arm, and/or have flexability issues, you may wind up with your bar/stem sitting at the top of a flagpole.

I was in the exact same position you were. I'm 5'10.5 and w/ a long torso. I ended up ordering the 54 based on my LBS's advice. Should be picking it up sometime next week.

Chris A