Bike sizing, 5'11"can go Large or Med. which do you choose?

Test ride before you buy. It's no secret that Niners run big! My friend who's 5"11 bought a large Jet 9 and it's too big for him. He had to reverse the seatpost and run a really short stem...it was nearly still to big for him.

 

Carl,
I'm 6' with a 34" inseam. I felt comfortable on Pat's large Jet9. You can always go with a shorter stem. I believe Pat's has a 100mm. I tend to like my TT around 24-24.5. I believe the large Jet9 has a 24.5.

If the Niner recommendation cutoff between medium and large is right at 5'-11" then you might size down. I'd prefer the shorter wheelbase.

 

Big guys on medium bikes have to use long posts and stems. Been there done that. It puts you over the bike rather than on it. Go large.

 

About the same as you, 5'11 with 32" inseam. I always ran seatposts at nearly minimum insertion for climbing. The large fits better all around. Like Tedroy said above, you feel more balanced "in" the bike instead of on top of it.

Compare the amount of exposed seat post in these pics. Both are in climbing position. First pic is the medium I was running for about a year. Second pic is the new frame. Theres almost a full 2 inches less exposed post in the new frame which translates to less stress on the frame and a better riding position since the bars are higher relative to your seat. to OP, definitely test ride both if you can, to see which feels better, but I would go larger for the above reasons.



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Im 5'8" and have rode owned a s, m, and large. Funny thing is, my teocali super was a large and I loved that bike. 50mm stem felt great. I have ape arms however!

 

Niners do seem to run slightly bigger. My GF has a small EMD 9 and I have a medium Specialized Carve. If I was to swap my stem and saddle onto her EMD...it would feel real close to my medium Spesh.

 

I am 5 11 and rode a medium for a couple years it was fun. I now riding a large and still having fun it is all in feel.

 

large and in charge

 

Thanks everyone. I'm having fun on the new ride. It does feel a little bit big. but I'm getting used to it, got 3-4 good rides on it now. In fact, I crashed pretty good tonight while getting a little stupid off a small jump. Just moved the seat up and trying different bar / stem combos. so far, so good.

 

I was thinking of picking up the rip 9 frame from Jensen tomorrow. Looks like they are blowing them out . Was planning on just swapping my parts from my stumpy 29er to it . What size fork you running on the jet?

 

The fork is 100mm FLoat RL. got it from Jensons also. $1300 for frame and fork was irresistible.

 

Are you running your front tire in reverse?

 

good old nobby nic, always looks like its in reverse

 

yea, weird how that is. I'm thinking of putting it in the rear and trying Hans damph in the front. However my only gripe, it doesn't look like there is much tire clearance for larger rear tire. the 2.2 rocket ron is very close to rubbing on one side.