Sheldon started off so well when he wrote: "Rear-opening fork ends have no virtue for well designed frames, they're just an atavistic styling exercise."
only to get side-tracked (pun intended) by what I believe to be the absolutely incorrect successive statement:
"It is true that for frames with stupidly short chainstays rear-opening fork ends are the way to go."
You simply cannot make a frame with shorter stays with rear-ward facing dropouts. In the best case the chainstay lengths can be the same as on forward facing dropouts. In a rearward facing dropout bike, the wheel cannot be bolted to the utter foremost position in the groove, otherwise it is impossible to fit the chain. You must always leave enough forward movement space to pull the chain onto the cog. The only way to avoid this would be to remove a pin in the chain which would be counterproductive.
As best as I can tell, there is absolutely no reason to ever justify
rearward facing dropouts over forward facing ones.
Steven Maasland
Moorestown, NJ
USA