mtrichick wrote:
Long winded reply - but the short and sweet is to buy a bike that FITS! Brand does not matter.
Honestly I'd spend the cash and get a proper professional bike fit FIRST. See what your measurements are and then see what bikes are out there that could fit you. Then - find a bike within your budget meeting that criteria. I'm 160cm tall but I have shorter legs (my inseam is 75cm). I am usually constrained by the standover height of bikes because its uncomfortable and generally a pain in the ass (pun intended) to smash your junk against the top tube of bikes repeatedly. ;)
I know my ideal stack and reach measurements as well as other things like how far I like my saddle above the handlebars (how aggressive your position is), how high I want the aerobar pads, etc.
The REALLY important thing to know is that some bikes have very limited adjustability in the front end of the bike (the stem,etc) and you really don't want to go into a bike with a completely integrated stem that can't be adjusted higher / lower unless you know that the bike will be a perfect fit for you. There are things you can do to raise/lower the aerobar bads, but you have to be content where the base bar is (height wise). To give you a real world example of what I'm talking about - look up the Quintana Roo PR6 stem and see what it looks like versus the one on the PR4 or PR55. The PR 4 or PR5 have more of a standard looking stem that you could swap out if needed for one that is at a steeper/flatter angle (in order to raise the base handlebars up or lower them down), and you can put spacers below as well. The PR6 has an integrated stem with limited flexibility in that height adjustment. Bikes like Canyon Speedmax fall into this same category of limited adjustability (many others as well).
I say all of the above because I didn't listen to my gut when I got excited about getting a new triathlon bike a few years ago. The bike fell into the "non adjustable" front end variety and it turns out in hindsight, it "fit" but only at the extreme aggressive end of my fit range. (I had been professionally fit and still made this mistake!) What that meant is that I felt like I was going to fall over the handlebars when I was riding it and holding onto the bullhorns. I was super comfortable in the aerobar pads, but if I wanted to sit up and have a break, the only option to do so was to sit up and hold onto the aerobar pads. I live in the Northeast US, and my races often are hilly. I dont want to feel like I'm falling over the handlebars on a steep descent. So - I bought the bike on advice that I would "get used to the aggressive position" - continued to feel like I might crash any moment - and then sold it at a giant loss a few months after.
Interesting that you consider yourself to have short legs. I'm 163cm with inseam of 77 and always considered my legs long in comparison to my torso. When I contacting canyon about sizing, the rep queried my inseam as she said it seemed very long for my height. That said, I have to be careful with top tubes too, and generally am always looking at an XS frame for this.
I'm a little confused about bike fits without a bike. They are not at all cheap, if going without a bike, do you end up paying for 2 fits, one before for advice and one once you have the bike to adjust it?