Importance of head tube length

[Bruce L]

What is the importance of the head tube length in choosing frame size ??????

 

[Aztec]

Important! If it's too short, you will need a lot of spacers to get the bars high enough. You may even hit the limit of spacers and still be too low. What's more important to ask, though, is what the height of the head tube is in relation to the saddle height (i.e., if the frame is so small that you'll have 8" of seatpost showing, you are going to have a tough time getting the bars high enough -- assuming this isn't a sloping frame).

Tri/TT bikes have short head tubes for this reason -- to allow the bars to get low relative to the saddle.

 

[boudreaux]

Originally posted by Aztec
What's more important to ask, though, is what the height of the head tube is in relation to the saddle height (i.e., if the frame is so small that you'll have 8" of seatpost showing, you are going to have a tough time getting the bars high enough --

That is the more correct part of the answer.Many frames,especially compact have very short HT and yet no problem with bar height.Some frames even have HT extensions.

 

[Bruce L]

Originally posted by boudreaux
That is the more correct part of the answer.Many frames,especially compact have very short HT and yet no problem with bar height.Some frames even have HT extensions.

I'm talking about compact /sloping tube frames. The Ghisallo has HT of 8.2 vs. Tete de Course of 10.2. My BB- Saddle position is 67 cm. I'm just of afraid that I may be too low on the Ghisallo for my body type and I can't demo any of these bikes.