Chainstay philosophy?

[swalburn]

I have a weird topic that I was thinking about during the break in March Madness. My wife has basically given me the green light to get a new frameset in the next year sometime. I have 58 fierte that I really like, but sometimes I have illusions about my abilities and long for a race bike. It was a sunny but cold day in Michigan, so we went looking at some different bikes. I have the green light to spend about 3 or 4 grand. I've been to the Serotta dealer numerous times and am considering a custom concours that is a little racier. We also went to the Orbea dealer to look at the new Orca. What a jaw dropper. The guy offered to sell me it in a 57 for 2340 dollars. That is frame fork and headset. I explained I was just looking at then we went to the Seven dealer. I was looking at the Seven's (most of which were signature series) and noticed on every single one had much beefier chain stays than the Fierte. I didn't think I was imagining things, but it seemed pretty obvious to me. My question is there a chainstay philosophy, and what do differently designed chainstays offer. The Seven chainstays were very stout. I weigh about 200 lbs on the nose, and got wondering if I would like the ride of a bike with a thicker set on chainstays. The Fierte's stays are on the long side (42cm) so I don't know if that is a factor in what I was perceiving. I also looked at alot of Cannondales, and other "race bikes' and those stays were a lot beefier as well. I know the chainstays are only one component of the bicycle, but do different manufacturers have different ideologies about the stays. I was reading some of the reviews on pez cycling and the author test rode a Seven (I can't remember what model) and they gave him oversize stays. He asked Serotta for the same, and they rejected his idea. They built him a bike with normal stays that was exactly what he was looking for. Both bikes were designed to be very stiff race bikes. Any ways back to my question. Do different manufactures have different ideas, and what are benefits or weaknesses of each design.