Especially since it is your first tri bike I would recommend getting a proper fit. After getting your fit coordinates its easier to determine what bikes work for you.


The smaller BMC's tend to measure kind of big. Your 47 Team Machine is similar size as a 51 or 52 in some other brands. I ride an older Team Machine in size 50, and it is similar to size 52 or 53 road bike for many other brands. I could have fit to a 51 or 54 Felt IA, and ended up getting an IA10 in size 54.

Cervelo and Felt offer bikes in size 48, but at your height you might not need that small of a frame.

Premier tactical xs

Thanks j.shanney. I had no idea there was such a wide variation between different brand's sizes.

I will have a look at the Cervelo and Felts.

+1

5'4" isn't terribly short, but it is right on the cups of maybe needing a 650 wheeled bike, so as suggested, get fit first so you only have to buy a bike once.

+2

+3...as far as 700c bikes go, I don’t think there’s a better geometry/frame geometry choice than a 48cm IAxx (10,14,16) if it matches your fit.

Be sure and get your needed Stack, as many bikes won't let you get low enough if you are one who really fits a low front position. For me, I chose a 48 P5 as the stack on it was the only one in my frames of choice that allowed me to get to my desired position. The Reach is equally important so as to ensure you are not over stretched.

Cheers,

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"Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go." T.S. Elliot | Cycle2Tri.com
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I was looking at the Dimond XS. It says that I am too tall for it, at 5'6", but it's stack and reach are slightly bigger than my old Cannondale Slice (2009 model) that has 37.5 reach and 48.5 stack. The XS Dimond has similar stack and reach as a 51 P3!!! I found my 51 P3 never fit as well as the Slice due to the longer reach and slightly higher stack. Not many short guy/girl bikes on the market like that Slice anymore....everyone's small bike and even extra small bike is too long reach for someone like me who is short with long legs and no torso!!!! It seems like for no torso people who are short, we can never get short enough reach bikes, because bike manufacturers seems to be worried about toe overlap by make the reach too short....but you can do that with a slack head tube

Thanks for the feedback everyone. My main takeaway from this thread is that I should probably get a proper bike fitting before pulling the trigger on any purchase.

I had never heard of Premier bikes until this thread. They are on the pricier side but looks like you receive good value. For those who have the Tactical 2.0 - is this frame compatible with a Tacx Neo?

Consider Quintana Roo.

QR has a 48cm PR Five and Six with small geometry (700cc wheels). I'm in your height range, and I ride a PR Six. The stack of the PR Six is the same or slightly less than then Felt IA.
QR also has a 45 bike with 650 cc wheels.

The Premier XS has 650cc wheels FYI.

Yes I noticed that on the Premier website. The Premier XS also does not have the rear hydration. I don't think I'm willing to drop down to 650cc.

I'll check out the QR, thx!

I’m in the same boat. I’m 5’6” and slightly shorter torso than legs I guess. Looking for a new tri bike, hard to find a frame that has what I need - when I rode a 51cm Cervelo S2 it had a lot of toe overlap and I’m worried about that on smaller bikes. Felt IAxx in 48...too small? Trying to get stack/reach in the area of 530/465.

P5 gets really small, and they actually have a few 650s left in prior year models for cheap.

P5X gets really small. Felt B14 has a 47 if you're looking for a budget option (these will be VERY difficult to come by this year). An undermount with the IA and IAx gets you really low.

At the end of the day, 5'4 will probably get you on just about a number of 700c bikes effectively as long as you can standover.

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Trent Nix
Owned and operated Tri Shop
F.I.S.T. Advanced Certified Fitter | Retul Master Certified Fitter (back when those were things)

At first my ego wouldn't allow me to even consider a 650 but after doing some research I'm starting to warm up to the idea...

Totally understand. I tend to encourage customers to find a 700c option unless they can't stand over the top tube effectively, but there is nothing wrong with a 650 bike and you can perform every bit as well irrespective of whether you're on a 650 or 700. Still, at 5'4 you should have 700c options depending on budget and preferences.

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Trent Nix
Owned and operated Tri Shop
F.I.S.T. Advanced Certified Fitter | Retul Master Certified Fitter (back when those were things)

Thanks Trent.

Assuming 650/700 are both in play - are you suggesting I should stick with 700 given what you know about my dimensions? Is there a particular reason?

I agree with others who said you should do a pre-purchase fit.

My partner is 5"3 and we got her a Felt IA16 in size 48 and it fits great. As far as 700c wheel bikes, I don't think any offer as low a stack as this one, and with the included spacers you can always get the bars higher if that's what you end up needing.

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ZONE3 - We Last Longer

700 will give you lots more wheel choices in the future and more tire choices. And you'll have more bike choices too.

At 5'4, it's likely you'll be able to have a safe standover on most 700s.

Ego shouldn't keep you from a 650, but only math should keep you from a 700. Get fit on a fit bike (from a good fitter) and that should make this a much simpler discussion.

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Trent Nix
Owned and operated Tri Shop
F.I.S.T. Advanced Certified Fitter | Retul Master Certified Fitter (back when those were things)

Minimum armpad stack on an IA16 with stock bars and setup is 575. Get different aerobars and you can buy another cm or so. An undermount will buy you 10-15 mm as well, but significantly limit your armpad placement options.

The integrated IA offers a stack as low as 560. A P5 gets down to 553, and the P5X gets down to 528 (nothing I've seen gets lower).

A Felt B14 in a 47 is a 650 option but the minimum armpad stack with the standard setup is 574. But, of course, standover is much lower.

The Cervelo P2 (2018 with Profile bars) can get down to around 580 stack if you put a -17 stem on it.

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Trent Nix
Owned and operated Tri Shop
F.I.S.T. Advanced Certified Fitter | Retul Master Certified Fitter (back when those were things)

According to TriRig's chart, an undermount Alpha X on a size 48 IAx will get you a pad stack of 517. The inline mounts are also an option that isn't as limiting in terms of extension choice (and gets you the same pad stack as the undermount). On the stock bars, a relatively cheap way to drop height would be replacing the extension clamps with inline ones like the PD Supersonic.

If we accept the premise that a standard 1 1/8 steerer will accept any standard bar, the extra 18mm of frame stack means the IAx still goes lower than the P5. And I could buy 5 IA16s with TriRig cockpit for the price of a P5X...

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ZONE3 - We Last Longer

But you could only ride one at a time. 😃

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Trent Nix
Owned and operated Tri Shop
F.I.S.T. Advanced Certified Fitter | Retul Master Certified Fitter (back when those were things)

A lot depends on your body type, i.e. body proportion, and how it matches with the geometry of the particular bike. With a lot of the modern bikes including TT bike, the top tubes are sloped so the old way of determining size by seat-tube length is outdated. If you are 5'4 but have longer torso and arms, you might just be fine with normal geo bikes. But if you are like me with shorter torso and arms, even though I am 5'10, I have hard times with some of the 54cm bikes with their geos, e.g. BMC. So far, I've found Cervelo's geo to be really good for me.

I'm 5'3" with a short pad stack/ long reach, I started out on a Cervelo P2 48 with 650 wheels and rode it competitively for about 4-5 years. As my fit got more dialed in, I realized my short stack and long reach were impossible to make happen on that bike and I started getting uncomfortable and bunched up. I got mutlipe proper fits that all narrowed me down to at least a small range to work with when looking for a new bike. I ended up with a Felt IA 48 with 700 wheels. The size difference in wheels had a noticable feel difference which I didn't like at first, but have since gotten used to. I did still have to change out the cockpit to the TriRig One since the Felt stock front end still didn't get me comforably out far enough (I didn't want the undermount of the alpha and the one got me low enough), which also came with some issues initially, but now that I have everything worked out. I now have a great fit. But to find that right bike/right components, it took a lot of research, but I love my new set up. I still have some challenges due to the small size and bottle/flat kit placement, but I'm slowly dialing that in with trial and error as well! So the best place to start is a proper fit to get a range of measurements to work with, then trying to disipher the geometry charts on various websites. Since NO ONE has these small bikes in stock try and find people local to you that may have one and see if you can ride it! Good Luck!