mbw remote sizing

three measurements you can take at home which will unlock which bike you should buy

to help us recommend a size for your n+1, all you need to do is take three measurements at home, specifically: your cycling inseam, your height and the saddle height off a bike you already own - if available. while you may already know some of these numbers, it is worth taking them again as our bodies are always changing so you may not measure out to what you did last year.

it would be great if you could provide the three measurements in centimeters (cm) opposed to inches ("), but we can work with either if you don't have a metric tape measure at home.

1. cycling inseam

because that number on the back of your Jordaches isn't the same as what the bike world uses

to measure your cycling inseam, we'd like you to use what is called the 'book method' as it uses the rigidity spine of a hardback book to help locate the height / length of your cycling inseam.

to do this, just stand against a wall in your bare or socked feet about 10"-12" apart to simulate your stance when standing over a bike and then place a book between your legs. pull the book firmly up into your crotch until you are getting close to the same amount of pressure you feel when your body weight sits on a saddle.

your cycling inseam is the distance between the top / spine of the book and the floor. this is easiest to measure, by having a friend do the measuring, but you can get the same results by yourself, if you pull the book up with one hand while marking the top of the book on the wall with a pencil and then measuring between the two points.

here's a 30 second video showing you how to do this from one of our bike makers. it's good, but i'd prefer it if she took off her shoes, pulled up on the book more while measuring and did it 3-4 times to see what the longest measurement she got. not an average, but the longest / tallest.

2. height

because we've all shrunk since getting our driver's licence in highschool

now you can use that same book to help you measure your height. to do so, keep your feet together, don't slouch and get someone to place the book horizontally on you head and measure from the floor up to the bottom of the book - or if you are doing it by yourself, do the same thing, but mark the bottom of the book on the wall with a pencil. do this a few times too to make sure you get the same number. thinking tall thoughts helps, but it doesn't magically regain those inches you've lost in your arches, knees and spine since your last visit to the doctor.

3. saddle height

if you can measure it, we'd love to know it

if you already have a bike and your feel the seat height is at least adequate for your pedaling style, then this measurement would be super helpful for us to know as it will allow us to visualize how much seat post you'll have sticking out of your new ride on your #NewBikeDay.

to find this number, just measure from the top of the saddle to the center of the crank / bottom bracket hole measuring parallel to the seat post and the seat tube of the frame.

that's a long rambly way to say to measure between the two arrows in this pic:

the top of the saddle is easy to find, but when we say to measure to the center of the crank / bottom bracket hole, what we really mean is to measure to the center of the hole that this arrow is pointing to:

pro tip: we usually take this measurement from the non-drive side of the bike as shown above (ie the side without the gears and chain on it) as some brands of cranks no longer have a hole on their drive-sides.

sooooo, let us know these three measurements and we'll do the rest

of course, if you run into any problems or you get lost along the way, just get in touch and we'll walk you through all this bike nerdery.