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I'm looking to find out about any beginner road bikes for tall, and somewhat larger guys. I am currently 6'8" and 305lbs. Been losing weight a lot, so I plan to be somewhere between 250 to 265 sometime soon. I'm curious as to if there are any good bikes for a guy of my size, or if I need to have one custom made.

My previous experience on bikes have been mountain bikes, but nothing too serious (difficult to sprint on those). If anyone could be of some help I'd appreciate it.

Thank you.

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    I'm a bit shorter than you and lighter. For most makes I was at the top end of their XL frame size, but a few makes do a 2XL. The fastest, lightweight, road bikes do have rather restrictive weight limits, but bikes designed for loaded touring or even cyclocross are much more robust and can take slightly bigger tyres which is a good idea. I went for a tourer for my first road bike and it's much quicker than my hybrid; I ride 4x as far and counting. I think we've had a similar question before (so I've only commented) but it's not easy to track down duplicates on the mobile site.
    – Chris H
    Commented May 15, 2018 at 7:24
  • If you want to spend a lot of money, contact DirtySixer. They make custom bikes for tall riders with 32 and 36 inch wheels.
    – Kibbee
    Commented May 15, 2018 at 9:28
  • I removed the "tall-bike" tag -- it's for questions about bikes like this, not bikes for people ilke this. :-)
    – David Richerby
    Commented May 15, 2018 at 10:29
  • We're not going to make product recommendations sorry - that's considered off topic because its of limited and short-term use. Instead, start with a used bike that gets you going. I'm 195cm and borrowed an `80s Morrison, put 200 km on it in a fortnight, and utterly smashed a heap of my strava PRs done on MTBs. In a year you'll know more about what you want, and then look for something more modern. Plus an older bike won't break your bank.
    – Criggie ♦
    Commented May 16, 2018 at 8:52
  • It seems that most normal road and even cyclocross bikes and wheelsets are limited to 100 to 120kg. Some “light“ touring bikes such as the Surly Long Haul Trucker have a limit of 300lbs/136kg.
    – Michael
    Commented May 16, 2018 at 11:40

3 Answers 3

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I'm 6 foot 5 or 195cm tall, with a weight of ~93 kg.

The most important thing is to find a frame that fits you - if you try to up-size a small frame, it means long seatposts with lots of leverage into the frame. I've cracked two frames over time by doing this, and bent seatposts too.

So at its most basic, you need to get the right distance from your saddle-top down to your BB axle. For me that is 840mm +-10mm. If I can't get that set on a frame, its too small for me. Note, I have proportionally longer legs than torso.

Once that's right, reach to the bars is next. That is set via trial and error, I don't even know what my measurement there is.

At a guess, you're looking for a 60cm frame size or larger. Rare and expensive, so you may have to take whatever's available. Start with a used bike and see how it works for you before commissioning a custom bike.

And do let us know how you get on.

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  • Usually the saddle height can be adjusted in a very wide range (~10cm up or down). Frame length (i.e. reach) is much more important since reasonable stem lengths are only in the 90 to 130mm range.
    – Michael
    Commented Sep 11, 2018 at 9:16
  • @Michael true, but a stem is a lot cheaper than a frame. Get the frame right-sized first, the reach/stem is next
    – Criggie ♦
    Commented Sep 11, 2018 at 11:36
  • @Criggie: Yes of course, but what I wanted to say is: Frame length (i.e. reach) is usually much more important than height, since length can only be adjusted in a narrow range.
    – Michael
    Commented Sep 11, 2018 at 12:24
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We try to avoid specific brand recommendations here, but I'm going to violate protocol. Rivendell Bikes makes their A. Homer Hilson in a 64-cm frame, which is pretty huge. This would not be a cheap option, but probably cheaper than custom.

Lennard Zinn is a very tall guy, is a framebuilder who specializes in frames for the very tall, and also happens to answer technical questions in a column at Velonews. He might be able to recommend some other off-the-rack options.

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I'd probably look at a cyclocross bike or a gravel grinder like a niner RLT or a Surly. They are capable road bikes but have relaxed geometries that fit big guys better. They are not going to match the thoroughbred tour de whatever bikes, but with appropriate tires you will get good performance and have fun! The components tend to be a little more durable than pure weight-minimizing road parts, to counter the weight limitations you're going to encounter.

For reference, I'm 6'5" and 230, so smaller than you, but fit very well on a 62cm RLT.

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