How to Choose the Correct Kona Mountain Bike Size

By Richard Thomas

How to Choose the Correct Kona Mountain Bike Size

Kona is a high-performance mountain bike company operating out of the Pacific Northwest, well known for its quality products and Hawaiian-themed bikes. Even the best Kona bicycle, however, won't do you much good if you haven't chosen the right size. If you go to a bike shop, getting the frame size on a Kona bike right is as easy as getting on and knowing what to look for, but a lot of people order bicycles online these days. Getting that right requires taking some measurements.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You'll Need:

Tape measure
Pen or pencil

Step 1

Get on the bicycle and straddle the top of the frame. From a standing position, there should be roughly three inches of space between your groin and the top of the untelescoped seat tube. This can be either the first step for picking out a Kona bicycle from the shop or the final step to confirm your choice of a bicycle purchased online after it has been delivered and assembled.

Step 2

Take off your shoes and measure your inseam in centimeters and inches. You can do this either by standing against a wall and tracing a line on it inside your legs and then measuring that line or by standing on a tape measure and measuring your inseam directly.

Step 3

Determine your mountain bike size by multiplying your inseam measurement by 0.65, subtracting 10 cm to reduce the size for mountain bikes and then converting to inches. For example, if a rider has a 90-cm inseam, then the formula is (90 x 0.65) - 10 for 48.5 cm, which is about 19 in. If that rider were eyeing a Kona Caldera mountain bike, it would be a 19-in model.

Step 4

Compare your inseam measurement in inches against the stand over measurement of the proposed bicycle if you are ordering online and cannot check in person. Our rider's 90-cm example is 35.4 in., and the 19-in. Kona Caldera has a stand over of 31.5 in. This is the closest approximation to the test from the first step. With 4 in. of space, there's just a little too much room. The bicycle should be OK, but you might want to look at a different model.

Step 5

Measure your torso and arm span. The torso measurement is a line from your groin to the front base of your neck. For the arm span, grip a pen or pencil in your fist and measure from the center of your shoulder joint to the pen.

Step 6

Add the torso and arm span measurements, divide by 2 and subtract 6 in. That will give you your best top tube height. In this example, the top tube height of the 19-in. Kona Caldera is 23.7 in., and the example rider derived an even 24 inches from the formula. This bike is good to go in terms of top tube height.

About The Author

Richard Thomas has been writing since earning his M.A. in international affairs in 1997. A former cheap travel blogger for eHow and senior travel editor for Associated Content, he has traveled from Argentina to Vietnam. Thomas usually writes about boxing, hiking and scuba diving, as well as on the food and wine of his current home of Portugal.

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