Tall bikes, as in welding two or more junky old frames together have become a rather common sight around here. I dig the whole DIY frame building thing but – call me conservative, boring, old fashioned or ignorant – I might just be too much of a rational character to really wanna own one.
Instead, what actually catches my eye are bikes that are literally tall, as in frame sizes of 60 and above, mainly for the sole reason of me being an above average tall guy. And one can’t argue that small frames tend to look a bit like child’s toys and you never really get an idea of the geometry. I’m not gonna start complaining about how hard it can be to find something your size when most frame manufacturers stop just that few centimeters off your field of interest. Same goes for shirts, pants and, of course, small people.
Just imagine how many nights you’d have to spend on ebay, craigslist and at garage sales, if you were as gigantic as the owner of this:
Yes, those are standard 28” wheels. What is this, like a 66 or something? And still, that quill stem is extended and pulled out to the absolute maximum. Now you might recall what I mentioned about small frames looking weird. I apologize to anyone riding 50 and below, this Eastern Germany basketball team endorsement bike surely wins an award for geometry weirdness as well. Just imagine how long your arm would have to be to reach to the bottle cage mounted like that. And that front brake cable would easily suffice for a complete swapping of cables on my road bike.
Silly me assumed total uniqueness of a vintage GDR Diamant basketball player’s frame in our city. Now either it’s been radically repainted or there really is another one out there:
Same bottle cage stretching exercises are recommended before mounting for your singlespeed century. I’m not really sure whether these frames always had those weird top tube protection thingys made of heat insulation material for some basketball related reason or if they’ve been attached for diligent custom nut protection in case of running into someone you plainly didn’t see from up there – best excuse ever.
Gotta love tall frames.
Young, fresh & nasty. The brain of disridehere.