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
> 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