Sizing a Ghisallo

Triathlon Forum
1

I am considering the purchase of a used Litespeed Ghisallo, and borrowed it for a few days to see how I like it. I’m working on getting a decent fit before riding it and have a few questions.

How much saddle to bar drop is typical for a road bike? I’m familiar with Slowman’s formula for Tri fit, but is there anything specific for a road setup? It’s currently set at 8.5mm from seat top to bar top. It feels o.k. on the trainer, but I wonder if that’s too much for long rides knowing that I’m not very flexible. There is 2cm of spacer under the stem but the steerer has been cut so I would have to use a slight riser stem to raise it.

Since it is a compact geometry frame, I have 22cm of seatpost exposed, measuring from the top of the seat tube, to the saddle rails. The insertion mark on the post is well inside the frame so safety isnt an issue, but I wonder is this excessive for a compact frame?

The bike is a medium large, and I’m 5’10" with a 32" inseam.

By posing these questions, I worry that I"m proving to myself the bike is a little too small, but if I moved up to a large to address the bar drop and seat post extension. I am certain the top tube would be too long.

Any thoughts?

2

Not much of a help, but with your measurements you’d fit a medium Giant TCR, 54 cm Cervelo Soloist or 53 cm Lemond OCLV/ti or OCLV/steel frame. Don’t know if the Ghisallo is the same geometry as these other compacts.

3

Good questions, you may have answered your own question here. It sounds like the top tube length of this bike is not correct for you in any size given the attendant, accompanying seat tube length.

4

There is no rule regarding handlebar drop for a road bike, only a level of comfort appropriate for the kind of rides you intend to do. If you’re a racer, especially in time trials or short crits, comfort is second to aero position. If you ride your road bike mostly on long solo training rides, then all you need to care about is comfort. Unless you’re racing, I think it’s difficult these days to buy a high-end bike with a tall enough head tube to get a comfortable position. The industry even seems to realize this, as Specialized has their Roubaix series for the “everyman” and Trek has its new Pilot OCLV series designed for a more upright position.

My road position has been evolving over time to have the saddle further back and the bars higher up. The opposite has been happening with my tri position-- it just keeps moving forward and lower as my body and equipment allow. I think sometime soon I’ll have a Grant Peterson-approved road position and an Empfield-esque tri position.

That aside, I’d say that a very aggressive road position might have up to 4" of drop, while 2-3 might be more typical. My back is flexible enough for me to ride with a 4" drop, but I was constantly fighting stiff shoulders and painful hands on longer rides. I’m probably riding with about a one inch drop now, and may go higher still. Racing is obviously not my priority, but I don’t really think I give up much in terms of performance with this position.

5

I am 6’2" with about a 33.5 inch inseam, and I ride a large Ghisallo. I personally like to ride my bikes “a bit small”.
Herbert

6

Thanks for your reply’s. I was afraid it was a little small. I’m starting to get the impression I am slightly long legged and short torso.

I too like to ride my bikes a bit small as I’m comfortable on a shorter top tube. I’m even o.k. with a lot of seatpost on the Ghisallo. The biggest problem Is the fact that I probably need to raise the stem about an inch, and that would require be a silly looking stem.

Thanks again,

                    Dennis
7

Herbert-

I’m about 5’ 8.5" with a 33.25" inseam. As I wrote earlier, I don’t ride with much of a handlebar drop on my road bike these days. Which size of a Ghisallo would you recommend for me?

P.S. Any chance you will make a Ghisallo-like bike with a taller headtube and in a non-sloping design sometime soon?

P.P.S. Which one of us is more out of proportion…

8

Holy cow Tom. How do you find anybike to fit with those measurements. I’m having trouble enough with mine. I’m curious Tom, what size bike do you ride? Do you have to use a riser stem? I’m guessing you need a long seat tube and short top tube. I’m not even sure there is a bike available like that.

On a side note, I tried a Felt at the LBS today ( thinking of maybe an F2C) and ran into a similar problem with the 56cm. Once I have the seat height adjusted properly, the drop to the bars is again 4 inches, just like on the Ghisallo I tried. I called Felt and they recommended trying a 58cm. There wasnt a 58 available, but the 56 top tube works for me with a 100cm stem, so I really think the 58 will be too long.

Not sure what to look at now.

9

Tom,
If your measurements are spot on, you seem indeed ready for a custom frame. Your torso is indeed short when compared to your legs. As you are going up in sizes to compensate, you’ll get too long of a toptube. We can build a Ghisallo any which way you want, or a Vortex in that type of geometry, if you so desire.
Why don’t you email me at work and I’ll walk you through some more alternatives.
Cheers,
Herbert
Litespeed/QR

herbertk@americanbicyclegroup.com

10

Dennis-

I’m of the school that nearly everybody can be fit on an off-the-shelf frame, even though they might prefer to have something custom. I had the most luck with a mid-80’s steel bike which was 57 cm C-C and square (also a 57 TT) with a 74 degree seat tube angle. So much adjustability with quill stems…

I still have and ride that bike, but wanted indexed shifting (and something new and different, I’ll admit) so I bought a Foco steel bike a few years back. It’s 56 C-T and square, also with a 74 degree seat tube. For a while I used a 0 degree post and moved the seat forward to reduce my reach. This actually put my fore-aft position at KOPS, although that wasn’t really the intent.

Lately I’ve been moving further back to get weight off my hands. Right now I’m using an old American Classic post with a normal amount of setback and the seat moved about 3/4 back on the rails (this puts me well behind KOPS). I’m fairly flexible so the reach isn’t that much of an issue, but I do use a 10cm stem (Ritchey WCS +/- 6 deg) and I might go shorter although I wonder how quick I want to make the steering. The steel fork on the Foco has three narrow spacers. I had been riding with the stem in the lower position, but recently flipped it to move it upward as I moved my seat back.

That Felt has a short head tube (maybe it’s typical these days), plus it’s got an integrated headset so that drops you down a bit more. The fork has an alloy steerer, so you could be fairly liberal with spacers and then use a stem flipped up to get the bars up higher. How was the bike you tried on set up? There’s nothing wrong with using a stem with a lot of rise if it gets you where you need to be, as long as you don’t mind the appearance. My problem (one of them, anyway) is that I’m of the time of level top tubes and -17 degree stems, and just prefer that classic look. That’s all aesthetics, though, and I don’t mind my sloping TT, angled-stem MTB, so go figure.

If you can ignore KOPS, you can maintain the same saddle to bottom bracket distance but lower your saddle height by moving the seat back and down. You do have to move it back a good bit to achieve any noticeable drop in saddle height. I’m not one of the guys to run the trigonometry on my dinner napkin, but I’d guess you’d only reduce your saddle-to-bar drop half an inch to an inch by doing this.

If I were looking seriously at a new frame now and wanted Ti, I’d give some thought to something slack-angled like a Merckx Majestic-- it’s got a relatively short top tube to begin with, and with the slack seat tube you should be able to move the seat up a bit to shorten it some more and still maintain pretty good balance. Of course for the price of Litespeed or Merckx titanium you could go custom steel, or try one of the Chinese Ti places that will do custom, but they won’t be as light.

None of this is rocket science and I’m sure you’ve thought it through yourself, but I hope it helps. Those Ghisallos sure are nice…

Herbert-

I’m pretty confident in my measurements, give or take 1/4" or some thin cycling socks. My question was a bit rhetorical, I’m afraid. Somehow I knew you’d say I was a candidate for custom, although I don’t necessarily disagree.

Any chance of Litespeed coming out with a performance and comfort-oriented bike along the lines of Specialized’s Roubaix Pro, but with the Ghisallo’s tubeset and a level top tube?