Chris
10-30-2004, 09:01 PM
Okay, here's the deal. I've got a little fit contemplation problem. When I used to buy a frame, I would just focus on the top tube length and then get everything set up from there. A couple of things have changed this simplistic way of purchasing a frame for me. First I finished school, and now I can afford to have more that one bike built up at a time, which means that I need the set-ups similar to avoid knee trouble. Secondly, the industry has moved to the threadless headset, so my position is more restricted. My team next year is going to be getting new frames, and I have a bit of a quandry as to which size to go with. Based on everyone here being able to chime in on different frame dimensions, I was hoping you guys would chime in and help me figure out the differences that I might expect from my current set up to the other options.
My current race bike is a Moots compact. 58cm effective headtube, 74* HTA, 73* STA, and 17.1cm headtube (with a Chris King Headset my headtube is 20cm in terms of comparison with an internal headtube). I have 2.5cm of headtube spacers on the fork and a Ritchey WCS stem (120cm). This setup gives me about a 9cm drop from the top of my saddle to the top of my bars. The frame has a 7cm BB drop. I run a Thompson seatpost and to get my knee position the way I like it, the saddle is pushed back quite a bit on the rails, not to an extreme, but definitely back.
Our race bike next year is in all likelihood going to be Cannondale. I never thought I would ride one, but it looks like I will be, and oddly enough, something that I have found is that because of the move toward internal headsets, the Cannondale is one of the few big company frames that works for bigger riders because of the increase in headtube length with each and every size (1cm increments rather than S,M,L). This really comes into play when you are trying to avoid what I consider to be a horrid look of a lot of spacers. So, based on the headtube length and the fact that it is an internal headset, I am looking at a 60cm frame. The dimensions include a 19.2cm headtube, 6.7cm drop, 59cm TT, 73.5* HTA, and 72.5* STA.
When I compare the two frames, the thing that jumps out is that the Cannondale's angles are relaxed by 1/2* on each end. My question then becomes, how much difference will there be in trying to get my saddle position the same and what will the extra cm of TT do in terms of reach when you take into consideration that my saddle will have to come forward some to accomodate the slacker STA and the HTA is less as well?
My rudimentary analysis is that the angles will wash some of the difference away, and that I am better going with a 60, because of a taller headtube by 1cm, than a 59 which has an 18cm headtube, but a 58.3cm TT. I would really appreciate some of the more knowledgeable about these matters amongst us to chime in on this. I am attaching the links to the geometry pages for both bikes, if that would help. http://www.cannondale.com/bikes/05/geo-613.html
http://moots.com/bike-rd-compact.php The Moots is the 59
Thanks in advance,
Chris
My current race bike is a Moots compact. 58cm effective headtube, 74* HTA, 73* STA, and 17.1cm headtube (with a Chris King Headset my headtube is 20cm in terms of comparison with an internal headtube). I have 2.5cm of headtube spacers on the fork and a Ritchey WCS stem (120cm). This setup gives me about a 9cm drop from the top of my saddle to the top of my bars. The frame has a 7cm BB drop. I run a Thompson seatpost and to get my knee position the way I like it, the saddle is pushed back quite a bit on the rails, not to an extreme, but definitely back.
Our race bike next year is in all likelihood going to be Cannondale. I never thought I would ride one, but it looks like I will be, and oddly enough, something that I have found is that because of the move toward internal headsets, the Cannondale is one of the few big company frames that works for bigger riders because of the increase in headtube length with each and every size (1cm increments rather than S,M,L). This really comes into play when you are trying to avoid what I consider to be a horrid look of a lot of spacers. So, based on the headtube length and the fact that it is an internal headset, I am looking at a 60cm frame. The dimensions include a 19.2cm headtube, 6.7cm drop, 59cm TT, 73.5* HTA, and 72.5* STA.
When I compare the two frames, the thing that jumps out is that the Cannondale's angles are relaxed by 1/2* on each end. My question then becomes, how much difference will there be in trying to get my saddle position the same and what will the extra cm of TT do in terms of reach when you take into consideration that my saddle will have to come forward some to accomodate the slacker STA and the HTA is less as well?
My rudimentary analysis is that the angles will wash some of the difference away, and that I am better going with a 60, because of a taller headtube by 1cm, than a 59 which has an 18cm headtube, but a 58.3cm TT. I would really appreciate some of the more knowledgeable about these matters amongst us to chime in on this. I am attaching the links to the geometry pages for both bikes, if that would help. http://www.cannondale.com/bikes/05/geo-613.html
http://moots.com/bike-rd-compact.php The Moots is the 59
Thanks in advance,
Chris