Sorry Doug if your a 'Gate' owner - I've never ridden one, but then again as I wasn't questioning yours or any other owners perceived benefits in the frame design. As to the comments about the builder, well I have to say, my comments were aimed at Baines, the originator of the design rather than TJ who is copying them. These comments could equally apply to any number of small builders during the pre & post-WWII era who experimented with the defacto "standard" diamond frame design. Many sold their ideas like some form of magic potion, but sadly few came about through proven design work or engineering. With so many small "lightweight" specialist builders around they seemed to feel the need to make their mark in this highly competive club racing machine market. The "gate" I feel was Baines example. If it really worked, it was more likely to have been by accident than by design.
There must have been a dozen different solutions to the need for a short wheelbase. all intended to be an improvement or "faster" than the last. Almost all were straight from the minds of the builders. Innovative perhaps, but not I suspect through proper engineering design, when for many of them it was just an add-on to their Lightweight cycle sales business. They needed something to sell that extra frame more than the next guy - a practice which continues today, mixing alloy's and composite materials to produce the "next best thing" and that 0.0001% improvement.
As an example, a short wheelbase - say 39.1/2" on a 21" frame, could be achieved by the use of a double curved seat tube or to a lesser degree by profiling the back of the conventional seat tube to accommodate the tyre, something which was taken up by a lot of other manufacturers for specialist time trial machines. Why did Baines go to such a length to achieve the same thing ? If you look at the design on paper, it's like he just drew in the wheels to the required wheelbase, added the other tubes, found he had one left over, then looked for some place to stick it..... as an afterthought.
I would certainly be interested to know how many conventional frames Baines had sold during the companies life span....
Only my opinion.
Bob Reid
Stonehaven
Scotland