How to Measure a Bike Frame

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Will from the Oustpokin Bicycle and Sports Shop located in Newbury, New Hampshire. Today we're going to talk about how to measure a bicycle frame. Bicycle frames are measured front to back. You might think that's how they are measured just because that's how it would feels when you're riding; it's first thing you think about. They're not necessarily measured from the ground here because you think about that too, you just put your leg over it for clearance purposes. The, the frame is actually measured from the center of what we called the crank, right here and you can really find that by the bolt. The bolts hold crank on in place. Once in the center of the crank, all the way up what we call the seat tube; see thing in seat tube here. You follow it right up to the end of the top, of the top tube, the center of the top tube. It depends on the manufacturer in which they choose an you can usually find out how they measure them in your owner's manuals or the catalogs. But for rough guess estimate, if you're just trying to size up somebody's bike; you measure in inches or centimeters but inches are still more common at this point, in the center of the crank, straight up to seat tube and I'm just going to call it center of the top tube, that should cover most bicycles out there. So once again, we don't talk about length of the top tube; we don't talk about height from the ground to the top tube. We measure bike from the center of the crank to the top of the top tube or center of the top tube. And that is how you measure bicycle frames."