A pal of mine is looking at an older Litespeed Blade for his 13 year old kid. How is Litespeed’s sizing compared to a Trek Hilo? The reason I ask is I know that the kid has ridden a 58cm Hilo in a kids’ triathlon with little problems.
I realize this is a bit of a loaded question, and may be difficult to answer. Just trying to give my friend something to compare the Litespeed’s dimensions to. (He asked me how Litespeed’s run sizewise, and I was absolutely clueless.)
RP
Get the poor kid measured.
Yes, that would be the ideal thing to do. However, two things: It’s not my kid and my friend (a football coach) asked me to find out how Litespeeds run as far as their sizing goes. When I posted this, I knew what I was opening myself up to. I know all the caveats about bike fit; I can rattle them off to you in my sleep. But that’s not what Coach’s question was. It was about how a 55 cm Blade compares to a 58 cm Hilo.
RP
That’s one big kid, I’m 15 and I use a 56 frame.
But a 58? That’s pretty big…
Here’s the deal. I don’t think I stated my question properly yesterday. Coach has the opportunity to buy a Litespeed Blade in the 55 cm size. There’s a pretty good price on it, and he was really interested in it. His son, the 13 year old, did a couple of kids’ triathlons last year on a 58 cm Hilo. They lowered the seat, put some strap and crap pedals on it for him, and turned him loose. It didn’t fit, it wasn’t the ideal situation for him, but it worked – at least for the few races he did.
At the end of the year, the kid did a full fledged sprint, and Coach told him if he liked it and wanted to stay at it, he would buy him a bike. Well, the kid really wants to do some more tris, and Coach has a line on this Litespeed. He was just curious about how the sizing runs on Litespeed. He has some other plans for the bike, and was curious about its sizing specs. It wouldn’t be solely for his son, but his son would probably ride it a lot – if he can ride it comfortably.
Coach is looking at other options for his son; this was just an opportunity that presented itself. I posted the question here to try and help Coach get a better idea about Litespeed’s sizing. I’m not sure Coach is still interested in buying the bike. He and I spoke about it yesterday while we were on our weekly long ride (we are training for a half IM together). So he’s looking at other stuff that will fit his son better.
FWIW, my question still hasn’t been answered.
RP
If you go on treks website you would find that the 58 hilo has a 55.4 TT and a 77.6 stnad over height
the 55 blade has a TT of 55 and a 78 stand over height… these are for al intensive purposes identically sized bikes…
so if the hilo was too big, this one is going to be too big… so I would say don’t get it (even if he gets an incredible deal on it) cuase if it doesn’t fit, it doesn’t fit. Coloradocyclist is selling last year QR private reserve for around 1200.
The best thing for you to do in the future is to go to the websites and compare the geometries of the bikes, that will give you the best idea of how big these bikes actually are.
why dont you go to the respective websites?
Geometry is usally listed in the bike descriptions.
-kevin
Thanks guys. I finally got an answer!!! I should have gone to the websites, but I was being lazy. I thought I could get a quick and easy answer with little effort on my part. I’ll know better next time. Plus I knew I was probably opening myself up to a bit of ridicule by asking such a question. And to think I did this and it wasn’t even for me. The things we do for our friends. Thanks. I’ll pass the word to the Coach and let him make the decision. I don’t think he’s going to get the bike; I think he wants something that will fit his son better. This was just an option he was considering.
Thanks again.
RP