Having built several hundred short-wheelbase frames, including some ultra short ones - think of chainstays 13.875" long - I reckon I might just qualify to contribute on this subject, but only in so far as the my reasons for building them.
Most such "normal" short-wheelbase frames built by UK builders, including Jack Taylor, Baines, Saxon, Sun, Higgins, Hobbs of Barbicon, Grandex, etc in the early years, and dozens of other builders in the 70s onwards, were built with short distance time-trialling in mind. Before Percy Stallard and the BLRC came along to open up the roads for massed-start racing, most UK club racers specialised in short distance- 10, 25, 30, and 50 mile out-and-back trials against the stop watch. These were races out in a straight line to the turn.. and then back again.. and mostly on flat roads devoid of fast descents.. The same frames were used also in the hill-climb season because they had far less drag than a frame with a 40/41 wheelbase
The Paris Galibier with its 41" wheelbase on a 22" frame was not meant to be short wheelbase, the design being intended to give rigidity. The 39" wheelbase frames built by builders such as Harry Quinn were meant largely to be dual-purpose machines, at a time when cycle racing was in something of the doldrums and cyclists could not afford two bikes. As such they were short enough for time-trialling and were reasonably stable for massed-start racing. Having my business not too far from Quinn's shop in Liverpool I came across a lot of his frames, and often marvelled at how he managed at times to build frames with relatively long top-tubes, with head angles of 74/74.5 degrees, and yet succeed in finishing up with an inch or so of toe-clip overlap.
The Baines "gates" came in a variety of time-trialling, touring/club riding, and track models. The famous VS37 frame had 74H/72S angles, and a 37.75" wheelbase, on 26" wheels, with an 11" bracket height.This frame appears to have been the basis of the "VS37 Road Model" with mudguards, while a similar "gate" but with 73H/72S angles and a 39.5" wheelbase formed the "International TT" model for massed-start racing. The VS38, a "gate" with only one pair of seat-stays, had 73//HandS, to give a 37.75" w/base. This was claimed to be the hill-climb model.
Numerous are the ways and means and designs used by builders to shorten the rear-end of a time-trial bike, including curved tubes by Taylor, Grandex, Butler, Paris, Hobbs etc. etc,,fabricated curved plate jobs by Higgins, ingenious curved plate/tube combinations by Archambaud, and Polchlopek of Paris, twin seat tubes by Saxon, Butler, Ellis-Briggs and others, split seat tubes by Motobecane, Cazenhave, Mecacycle, and Geliano of France, fluted seat tubes by Hetchins and many others, and the seat tube/down tube construction used by Sun and later by MKM for their Ultimate model. The oddest idea I ever came across was the twin- curved- seat tube frame made by Ellis-Briggs some time in the 40/50s. Only six of these are believd to have been made. Why they needed both twin-tubes AND curved ones , I never will understand.
Norris Lockley...Settle.UK.. determined to design a T/T frame even dafter then the Ellis-Briggs before I turn my torch out for the last time