Don't worry about standover height. Make sure the reach and stack is correct for you, and that you can fit whatever length of dropper post you like.

 

standover is not a fit dimension.

it may well be a decision criteria for you based on comfort. but you need to fit a bike to your torso length first. figure out what you need and then you can later on filter based on things you want.

unfortunately as someone with short legs and a longer torso, you're going to wind up with less than desirable standover clearance*. you can adapt to it, but it will take some adjustment.

*off-the-shelf bikes from major manufacturers are made for most ppl, those with body dimensions floating around the "averages". ppl with body dimensions farther outside those population averages get the short end of the stick UNLESS you have a frame custom built to your preferences. You're going to pay for that, but you can also get exactly what you want.

 

Here's one to consider. A medium size for your long torso. You can compare this to other bike geometries and perhaps narrow down your choices.

Ripley AF

Geometry Geeks

 

Thanks, I'll make sure to add it to my list

 

Standover used to be a big deal when top tubes were basically just straight across, but most bike companies have eliminated that issue and they pretty much all have a low standover now. The new thing is reach, which is also a terrible way to fit a bike imho because the seat angle can vary wildly and the reach will stay the same. But no one really looks at ETT anymore, so i would just go with manufacturers recommendation and do the medium.

 

But no one really looks at ETT anymore, so i would just go with manufacturers recommendation and do the medium.

That is to their detriment.

ETT tells you about the fit of the frame while you're seated.

Reach tells you more about the frame when you're standing.

You can't just focus on one dimension of a frame to understand how it's going to work. For beginners, though, my advice is to ignore the numbers to start with. Climb on some bikes and ride them, even if it's just parking lot rides. If one feels really good or really bad from a fit perspective, THEN start to pay attention to numbers. Try out enough bikes and you should be able to put together trends about what you like and don't like. In the end, for a beginner, just buying something that feels comfortable and fun to ride is the best way to approach it and try to avoid information overload.

Chances are your preferences will change, anyway.

Geeking out on numbers is for ppl who have more experience and more strongly developed preferences.

 

One thing to note about Rocky is that they measure standover differently than many brands: their measurement is taken 200mm in front of the seatube. Giant, for example, measures it much further back.

 

When you're sitting on the seat pedaling the bike standover isn't involved. When you get up on the pedals to ride through rocks with your legs as suspension and you're moving your balance around to control getting over a log. No standover. Same going off a jump. Popping the front wheel up to bunny hop. Every maneuver you work to have fun on your bike doesn't deal with standover. You can stand on a pedal to get on and off your bike by swinging your other leg over the seat. Maybe leaning the bike on uneven trail surfaces with one foot on the ground will give anybody top tube clearance.
Everything you need the bike to do when riding trails doesn't involve standover. Consider how a bike handles your trails first. Second and third.

 

I'd say going up a steep hill in a mass start event and someone in front of you suddenly stops to get off the bike and you might suddenly need to put your feet down, standover does matter.
Its not like I've never ridden a bike before. I can tell you it has happened a handfull of times where I've had to very carefully get feet down and tippy toe around it. Luckily never been injured but would much prefer to have extra room.

If you got long legs and it doesn't matter to you, great for you!

 

When standover was used as a fit metric...was when bikes had top tubes that were more or less level with the ground. Now...with big wheels and long fork travel...the front ends of bikes have gotten really tall. When it comes to sudden stops...you body will get tossed forward. Its the middle and front of the top tube that you're most likely to hit. I barely clear the frame where the standover is measured...all I have to do is slightly move forward and I'm ballz deep in top tube.

 

I normally don't have a lot of clearance on the top tube. But I never find it an issue. I think it's like riding clipless, you just learn to automatically lean the bike without even thinking about it, it's just an automatic reaction. I wouldn't worry much about it at all.

 

hopefully, you can try the bike out because if you have short legs pay attention to how long a dropper post you can use which is important to me

I am 5' 11' with 29 inch inseam

my large 2021 Giant Trance X I can fit a 175 mm dropper barely and love that, the seat is slammed with so much room

but my large Fezzari Wire Peak I can only fit a 150mm dropper but I ended up with 125mm dropper and that is not the greatest because seat is not fully out of the way when down

but both have low standover height

 

Standover doesn't change with size because for a given bike and maybe a given brand, they all have the same upper pivot location. If you want standover, you have to find a brand that the upper pivot is divorced from the top tube. This usually means a shock that's low and goes across to the down tube.

Big travel big tire 29er is a problem too because it stacks the front of the tube really high. But that's where we are right now in the tire and travel fads

 

As a short-legged guy that has had many mtbs over the years with zero standover clearance, I find it a total non-issue. I literally never find the need to stand flat footed straddling the top tube.

 

As others have stated: big wheels + big travel = high standover. Not really a way around it.
If you're really that concerned with standover, look at 27.5" bikes with short travel.
Or, what kapusta just said!

 

I agree with this.

If you have stumpy legs and you feel you need better groin clearance then you should probably look at 27.5 bikes.

If you keep everything the same and just swap the wheels out you save about 16mm in standover height as the small wheels drop the whole bike by this amount.

Personally I don't see standover as a huge issue, and technique can get around a lack of clearance, like leaning the bike to one side when you stop. But I must admit I am speaking from the position of long legged privilege so the issue may be more significant than I can truly appreciate.

 

The standover numbers are not measured the same. A better estimate is to look at a picture and see how far the top tube veers from a direct line to rear axle. And then compare to what you are used to. Standover does matter though! For leaning the bike over.

 

I can say i have come to a dead stop and hopped off the bike only to be so glad i actually had that standover clearance.

but that was a mistake by me. No diff than a crash. Once you learn to mount and dismount with understanding you never do that type of thing again. You just always get off with one leg to the side.


i think my ability to climb technical stuff has improved dramatically so that the need to stop in an awkward spot has diminished.

a new bike will put you forward on the bike. Bring you into a position where the bike climbs things you never could before. The 29er wheels give you a huge roll over advantage from previous 26" bike that you will giggle at how easy some trail obstacles have now become. Dont forget modern gearing as well.

 

Please see @Jayem 's dot-sig

 

It might not matter for most of you, but to me it's like a criteria that we'll likely influence my final decision. At the end of the day there are more bikes than ever that for the criteria of short travel, good climbing and fun to ride. If one is going to be giving me a massage while standing there talking to the sales man and one gives room to breath I probably know what I'm going for.

It's not like I already don't get off to the side or know how to stand over a bike. It's for the once a season o crap moment when something happens.

An inch is a ton of space when you need it.

Think of it like blind spot detection in a car. You don't really need it. Check your blind spot. But eventually might come a day you're glad you opted for it.

 

Do you think this is something that I should be concerned about?

You asked, some answered, but you don't seem to like hearing others answers.

 

In my experience being able to safely clear a top tube is important and its something I'm looking for in a bike. I've explained this above. I'm not going to purchase a bike solely because the stand over is like 5" lower than another bike, but its factor in my purchase. There's many other factors, some might be geometry related like reach, and some might be the intention or performance of a bike, spec, price, availability. Not sure why it bothers you that I'm looking for a bike that might provide more clearance or that I'm curious why stand over height on a geometry chart my increase as sizes go down.

Someone actually suggested a bike to look at. Some people suggested other considerations besides a standover height on a geometry chart.
No one really had a good explanation for why a small size bike would have a higher stand over height on a geometry chart than a medium.

You can say tubes are sloped down or whatever, but if a geometry is to fit 90% of peoples bodies, than it would only make sense as you size down everything kinda gets sized down, if certain measurements get sized up as you size down, than the smaller size instead of fitting 90% of peoples bodies probably fits 80%.

 

Standover is a huge issue when you don’t have it. It’s not matter of skill or technique - why bother riding a bike that doesn’t fit your body type at all?

I’m 6’ with short legs. It’s the first number I look at in the geo chart. Then ETT and reach because my short legs came with a long torso. There are plenty of bikes out there that fit that bill.

Over the past few years I’ve bought frames from Yeti, Cotic and Reeb. All of those have pretty consistent standovers across the size run - they’re long and low. Some others that can have similar geo are Transition, Banshee, Pivot, and Santa Cruz. I can’t fit anything from Niner or Specialized. There’s some good options out there - no point in buying something that doesn’t fit.

 

I'm also 5'8" with shorter legs, shorter arms and longer torso. Basically the geometry of a minion, just slightly less pill shaped. Currently riding a size medium Transition Sentinel. I can attest to the bike having standover for days. A guy I ride with is a little shorter than I am and he's super comfortable on a size medium Spur. My brother in law is shorter than me by 1.5" and is on an older Evil Insurgent 27.5 and does alright. A much taller friend just picked up a size large Commencal Meta and it's actually pretty good. I'm with you, it's awesome having that much room to move around the bike. The only thing that has made contact with the 'ol branch n' berries is the 29" rear, though that could also be due to poor body positioning on my part and a couple badly cased jumps. I'm contemplating a mullet set up for my next bike, like the Patrol. LBS in the area stock Spesh, SC, Trek, Ibis, Yeti, SCOR, Orbea, Bold, Giant, Pivot and where I bought from also carry Scott, Cannondale, Transition. I've tried quite a few frames and generally, none beat the clearance of Transition with Pivot a close second. Another factor I find critical is how much post insertion a frame has, mine came stock with a 180, though I have room to run a 200mm. The seat just disappears on the downs. The new Unno frames look super low but ruined by the tall seat tube. I like my cockpit higher, so I run a +6 stem and +35 bar with 25mm of spacers. Shortens reach significantly due to slackness of the head angle, but helps keep me more upright and less hinged at the hips giving me a bit more room between me and the top tube. Unfortunately their complete bikes don't seem to leave much length on the steerers for adjustment. I'm going to try shorter cranks as well, should pick up a few mils there and maybe the Yoshimura ENDH stem to take back some reach or keep dreaming ONEUP will release a 45. But I'd recommend checking out the Spur or even the new Smuggler. Hope this helps!

 

Many frames use the same rear triangle for all sizes, and this influences the shock placement. There isn't a lot of room to move the shock around. Smaller frames end up with larger standovers in order to fit that in, and large frames can have lower standovers as a result.

Since stack doesn't usually grow as fast as thee reach when the size increases, top tubes on smaller frames will often be more steeply sloped. Standover is measured ahead of the bottom bracket, so this increased slope likely explains why some small frames have a greater standover than medium frames.

Some suspension designs allow for more flexibility than others.

 

Many frames use the same rear triangle for all sizes, and this influences the shock placement. There isn't a lot of room to move the shock around. Smaller frames end up with larger standovers in order to fit that in, and large frames can have lower standovers as a result.

Since stack doesn't usually grow as fast as thee reach when the size increases, top tubes on smaller frames will often be more steeply sloped. Standover is measured ahead of the bottom bracket, so this increased slope likely explains why some small frames have a greater standover than medium frames.

Some suspension designs allow for more flexibility than others.

Thanks, that makes a lot of sense

 

I don't think I've called it a fit dimension anywhere. If I've caused confusion over that, I'm sorry, but I have a preference for a FS bike with 29" wheels that might be XC/Downcountry ish that tend towards the easier side of stand over if that statement works for you. It sounds like you'd be ok with someone having a preference for a certain head tube angle range, or chainstay length, so I'm not sure why this would be any different.

If I'm absolutely not allowed to in your opinion be concerned about this measurement, probably best for both of us to move on lol.
👍

 

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I'm absolutely not allowed to in your opinion be concerned about this measurement, probably best for both of us to move on lol.
👍

That’s fine. But just to be clear you literally asked: “Do you think this is something that I should be concerned about?”

And some peoples’ answer is “no”.

 

It's a bit weird a giant answering this thread, but the standover of my Pole Evolink 158 was so low I miss that!

It was below knee height when on the pedals, so I could rotate and put my knee past the top tube, very useful for getting the weight over!

If it's below my knee, presumably it's below your other bits!

 

And, as yet others have said, there are plenty of bike manufacturers that have bikes with low standover. They just aren’t Specialized, Trek, or Niner. But they’re very easy to find, they aren’t all boutique brands and I listed a bunch above.

Consider your RAD, RAAD, PVD, whatever your mathematical fit potion of choice happy place is - those things are important, and reach is very important, but start with a list of bikes that won’t wreck your junk and move forward from there.

 

I’m also a shorter rider for whom stand over height is important too.

You might want to consider a mixed wheel bike as well. I ended up buying a 29 inch bike that can take a 27.5 wheel in the rear if desired.

 

I agree that if you have discovered bikes that will meet your specifications, not just standover height, then you're golden. What are you going to go with?

 

Not 100% sure, just trying to build up a list of possible bikes based on reviews and geometry charts. There doesn't seem to be very many bikes available in my area at the moment. Might have to order one just based on reviews.

The Trance 29 I guess is my baseline. Rocky Mountain Element also seems to fit the bill. Yeti SB 120. I think those 3 are kinda of on my short list right now.

Or just ride my 26" Anthem another year and wait till bikes are available and demo days finally show up again. I was originally planning to upgrade in 2020 but with Covid it never happened.