Big bikes and Big BB drops.

[mokmu]

This question is geared more to the larger serotta riders out there (60cm+ frame size). I am in the process of ordering a CIII and am concerned about an 8cm bottom bracket drop. Is anybody running 175mm crank arms with this amount of drop (stock spec for serotta), and if so is this a problem, or am I just crazy.
To further complicate things, for '05 serotta now specs their 60's with a 7.5 cm. drop. Why is that? And which way should I go.
Thanks for listening, everyone else thinks I'm just nuts or suffer from analysis paralysis.
Michael :confused:

[flydhest]

Never you worry. I ride a 60x61 Legend with an 8 cm bb drop. I'm currently running 180 cranks. I would not hesitate to race this in a crit if I were still racing. I have touched pedals on other bikes in the past. In fact, on my old Cannondale while I was racing. However, 99% of the time, if you're going fast enough that you need to lean so far that the pedal will touch, you don't need to be pedalling.

Moreover, if you're not racing all out, I don't see anything lost by taking an extra 1/10 second through a turn.

In all seriousness, I don't think there's anything to worry about. To the contrary, a lower bottom bracket is a good thing. It is much more stable in all aspects of riding.

[dbrk]

Nearly all of my custom bikes 60cm or even 61 have an 8cm drop and I've made a point of zooming hard through turns just to see if I scrap a pedal.

LeMond once said that if you are leaning that hard into a corner you gots no biddness pedaling! Well, he didn't quite say it like that but that's what he said.

dbrk
who wonders why bb drops are so high on nearly all bikes...

[dirtdigger88]

I agree. I ride a 60 Legend with an 8 cm drop. A few weeks ago I was testing out my new Open Corsa tires, so I was hitting a series of corners as fast as I could to see how well the tires grip. I did this both pedaling and not- I never hit my pedals- not once. I will also say the tires were wonderful. I was putting the bike far enough on its side on some corners to acutally mar the logo on the side of the tire. They gripped like glue. I would be interested in why the drop in now 7.5 cm. I wonder if it has to do with the rake of the new F3 fork? Am I wrong- doesn't the fork rake affect the drop?

Jason

[William]

Ditto on what the Super Fly said.

I've run 180's for a lot of years through many a crit. I occasionally scraped a pedal (before Speedplays) but you develop a sense for what the limits are. Not a problem at all.
I would have to check the specs to see what the BB height is on my Big (but small for me) Stealthy Serotta frame.

William :)

[Too Tall]

Basically agree with the fellers however I whack pedals ALOT in crits and was running a bike with 8 drop and 180's this season. It's just the nature of the beast. Very aggressive racing and desire to follow liddle biddy guys going really fast who have 170 cranks leads to TOO TALL freaks like me whacking pedals. It never slowed me down and my pedals look like crap but who cares?
IF I were to be more careful and always cut the apex a degree higher than these pipgeeks at the races I'd probably whack pedals alot less.

For what it's worth the top dog crit racer in our area is very tall (6'6") and he runs 175's.

With the same bike I rode 10's of thousands of miles and never whacked a pedal on club rides and fast training rides. What's your pleasure? I am very certain Serotta will always sell you a bike that is super stable and a pleasure to ride so no worries about .5 drop diff.

[David Kirk]

I'm a tall geek (6'5") and runs 180's with 8.0 drop. I have no trouble with drag at all.

Dave

[e-RICHIE]

"I have no trouble with drag at all."


dave -
we need to know this?
e-RICHIE

ps

:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
:) :) :)
;) ;) ;)


arrange disorder

[dirtdigger88]

mokmu-

where did you see the specs- i've looked around and I have not seen any geometry charts that say Serotta is using a 7.5- By the way- not too bad- first post and David Kirk AND e-RICHIE BOTH respond. You have the magic touch

Jason

[mokmu]

When we sent the original order in for a stock 60 cm. Kelly asked if we wanted the new '05 geometry. The only other changes that I can recall were a 1.5 cm head tube extension and a headtube angle of 73 instead of 73.5.

Not too sure why they changed it, but based on everyone's feedback, I'm going to go with the old stock geometry and the 8cm drop.

[Too Tall]

E! Bad welder...shame....back to your twizzlers.

[e-RICHIE]

sorry!
twizzlin' begins now.

[David Kirk]

I figure it's OK to not be embarrassed...we're all family....aren't we?

Dave

[Ken Robb]

I THINK I read that some government regulation requires no pedal dragging up to a specified lean angle on "bicycles" sold in the USA. This requirement requires high BB. The catch is that it only applies to complete bikes not frames.
This could be true or a web-canard.