But Brandon was talking about older frames - i.e. 1960s and older. I can tell you that when I was searching for a 1950s era British frame to use as a fixed gear, all the small and medium sized frames had - what I would consider - really long top tubes. For example, it seemed as though every 20.5 inch frame had a 22.5 inch top tube.
I think that by the '70s, geometry was less idiosyncratic for
"normal" bicycles.
Cheers,
Fred Rednor - Arlington, Virginia (USA)
> Not on larger frames, at least in the '70s. Many (though not
> all) of the
> more common brands had ridiculously short top tubes, at least
> by current
> standards: a 25 1/2" (65cm) Raleigh Comp GS has a 22 1/2"
> (57cm) top tube,
> about 5cm shorter than current designs. Bob Jackson and
> other popular Brit
> brands ran similarly short top tubes.
>
> Scott Peterson
> Bend, OR
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Brandon Ives" <brandon@ivycycles.com>
> To: <kohl57@starpower.net>
> Cc: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
> Sent: Thursday, November 03, 2005 10:08 AM
> Subject: Brit Sizing was:(Re: [CR]A Beauty from Barton on
> Humber)
>
>
> > You're right Peter, I do love it. I wonder about the sizing
> of British
> > vs. Italian bikes, I think a lot of folks pass on Brit
> frames because
> > they think they're small when sized by the seattube
> measurement. I'm
> > wondering if it's just my impression or actual reality that
> British
> > lightweights had longer toptubes than similarly sized
> Italian bikes, at
> > least in the '60s and before. My impression is that
> Italian bikes had
> > toptubes shorter than their seattubes and used longer
> stems. British
> > bikes seemed to have square frames or even longer toptubes
> than their
> > seattubes and run shorter stems. Does anyone else see this
> or am I
> > just hallucinating?
> > best,
> > Brandon"monkeyman"Ives
> > taking my "KOF" bike out in
> > the nasty weather in
> > Vancouver, B.C.
> >
> > On Thursday, Nov 3, 2005, at 09:30 US/Pacific,
> kohl57@starpower.net
> > wrote:
> >
> > > If anyone still doubts that classic English lightweights
> c. late
> > > '40s-60
> > > s
> > > are hard to beat for their names, colours, lining and
> especially
> > > transfers
> > >
> > > (decals), I offer the following late 1950s Hopper
> "Vampire" (don't you
> > > lov
> > > e
> > > it?!) frameset on eBay:
> > >
> > > http://tinyurl.com/
> > >
> > > Not my auction and sadly another too small English frame
> for me..
> > >
> > > Peter Kohler
> > > Washington DC USA
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> >
>
> _______________________________________________
>
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