Is it just me or are road frames starting to look more and more like mountain bikes with massively sloped top tubes that are nearly a straight shot (same angle) right into the rapidly shriveling seat stays? The odd thing is that in most cases this seems (at least from eyeballing without comparing geometry numbers) to be done without effecting the actual riding position... so what's the advantage? The seat posts just keep getting longer and the head tubes just keep getting shorter to negate the top tube angle change. However, it does make for an increasingly large gap between top tube length and effective top tube length.
Back in the day, horizontal top tube on nearly all road bikes:
1998 Trek catalog, all remains horizonal
Here we go, 2005 Pilot brings the slight slope for some "endurance" geometry
My own bike, 2012 Z5. Similar to the Pilot, intended for endurance riding.
Now suddenly we've got this stuff...
This is a race bike? Looks like the relaxed rides of not too many years ago. In fact if you made use of that massive amount of steer tube above the stem it'd be MORE relaxed.
These are race bikes too? They look just like the Pilot. Solid rise from seat tube to head tube.
Cannondale isn't affraid. The CAAD10 is still looks like a road bike aside from those hideous discs.
What the hell is this a step through frame?
Same thing with this one. Go any futher and the downtube and top tube will be parallel and the seat tube won't exist.
I've seen that frame shape before, I just can't put my finger on where...
Back in the day, horizontal top tube on nearly all road bikes:
1998 Trek catalog, all remains horizonal
Here we go, 2005 Pilot brings the slight slope for some "endurance" geometry
My own bike, 2012 Z5. Similar to the Pilot, intended for endurance riding.
Now suddenly we've got this stuff...
This is a race bike? Looks like the relaxed rides of not too many years ago. In fact if you made use of that massive amount of steer tube above the stem it'd be MORE relaxed.
These are race bikes too? They look just like the Pilot. Solid rise from seat tube to head tube.
Cannondale isn't affraid. The CAAD10 is still looks like a road bike aside from those hideous discs.
What the hell is this a step through frame?
Same thing with this one. Go any futher and the downtube and top tube will be parallel and the seat tube won't exist.
I've seen that frame shape before, I just can't put my finger on where...