Uncut steerer?

[531colin]

Fork crown to wheel axle roughly 410 mm

Tops of the flats on the bars roughly 1.1 M above ground.

Wayfarer Front Forks.jpg

That is one tall bike!
I guess it puts you in the tallest few per cent of the population, unless you have an unusual riding position.
Either (or both) of those is perfectly OK, of course.

Its good that Spa were able to build you a bike based on an off the peg frameset ......can you get the bars that high with a quill stem?
(Nitto do some tall quill stems, at a price https://www.hubjub.co.uk/stems-9-c.asp

I was once in the old shop at Spa when a bloke came in, weaving his way between the wheels traditionally hung from the ceiling.
He was looking for a bike! When I regained my composure, I said I needed to fetch somebody better qualified than me to help him, and I brought young Ben, the tallest we had at the time, 6'4" as I remember.
Customer was 6'8" tall, and he made Ben's own bike look like a kids toy. He started getting a bit shirty when we couldn't instantly fit him with a bike, then I asked him how he got on shopping for clothes and shoes, which he admitted was a nightmare.

[Pinhead]

Whoever invented this system didn't have the sense to foresee that people might have the need to raise the bars after the steerer's been cut. For a more suitable position as they age, for example.

It's fine if you ride for a professional team that's providing you with a brand new state of the art bike every season though.

Years ago I bought a bike from Halfords who CUT it, they regretted doing it as I insisted they fit another as I like high handlebars as on my Sanderson, in my opinion there is NO "right height" it is what you are comfortable with

[jb]

Can't see a problem there.

[LittleGreyCat]

Fork crown to wheel axle roughly 410 mm

Tops of the flats on the bars roughly 1.1 M above ground.

Wayfarer Front Forks.jpg

That is one tall bike!
I guess it puts you in the tallest few per cent of the population, unless you have an unusual riding position.
Either (or both) of those is perfectly OK, of course.

Its good that Spa were able to build you a bike based on an off the peg frameset ......can you get the bars that high with a quill stem?
<snip>

When out riding with the group I do seem to tower above them.
I am 6'0" tall so not anywhere near basketball player size.
If I locate a soft tape measure I will check my inside leg which may be longer than average.
As far as I know the Wayfarer (an earlier version) was absolutely standard with regard to sizing.
58 cm frame.
Spa may assume that everyone will cut the steerer down so mine may be unusual in having the bars set as high as they will safely go (I understand there should be one spacer above the stem).
I was comfortable at the time riding the tester which must have had a cut down steerer.

I've just been out and checked my MTB (26" wheels).
Top of the straight bars is 1 metre above the ground, but the overall geometry (saddle same height as bars, roughly 580 mm from saddle nose to bars) seems to be the same.
I did take the MTB with me when test riding the Wayfarer so I could compare directly instead of relying on my usually shaky memory.
So the quill stem doesn't go to the same absolute height above the fork crown, but....{goes out to measure}....the quill stem only goes up about 300 mm vertically to the top of the steerer but then ramps up and forward to gain another 50 mm in height to give me much the same dimensions as the Spa.
Looking on line this seems to be an old style MTB quill stem.
Of course, it is on an old style MTB!

[531colin]

Just had a measure of mine.....bars and saddle about 960mm above ground, 600mm from saddle nose to where i hold the bars.
(used to be 5'10", getting rapidly shorter!)
Your Wayfarer bars are 1.1M high, and the old MTB bars are 1M...? A fair difference, but as long as its comfortable, happy days!

[LittleGreyCat]

I assumed that the difference in bar height was due to the 26" wheels and more compact MTB frame with lower top tube.
However I'm not sure that makes sense.
I'm starting to feel that the MTB bars are just a tad low at times.

Puzzling thing is that my leg to pedal fit is the same as far as I can tell, bar and saddle height are the same (that is saddle same height as bars), saddle to bar length is the same.
Yet on the MTB everything is 100 mm lower.
Might need to get a taller quill stem (if I can get the old one out!) and raise and reposition the saddle.
Wayfarer is certainly a comfortable ride at the moment.

[axel_knutt]

I'm 6'5", and used to have my bars at 1150mm. It wasn't really high enough, but there weren't any stems to get it any higher, even with a 64cm frame.

[531colin]

I assumed that the difference in bar height was due to the 26" wheels and more compact MTB frame with lower top tube.
However I'm not sure that makes sense.
I'm starting to feel that the MTB bars are just a tad low at times.

Puzzling thing is that my leg to pedal fit is the same as far as I can tell, bar and saddle height are the same (that is saddle same height as bars), saddle to bar length is the same.
Yet on the MTB everything is 100 mm lower.
Might need to get a taller quill stem (if I can get the old one out!) and raise and reposition the saddle.
Wayfarer is certainly a comfortable ride at the moment.

Are you saying there is a 100mm (4") difference in SADDLE HEIGHT in your 2 bikes?

[LittleGreyCat]

Goes to show the eye fools.

Saddles are about the same height. Wayfarer a smidge higher.
Bottom bracket centre above ground is about 270 mm on MTB and 300 mm on Wayfarer.
MTB bars are significantly lower.

So I was correct in my "on bike" feeling that the MTB bars were lower.

Probably need to address the MTB bar height as I grow increasingly less flexible.