Originally Posted by
carleton
Another thing, NJS bikes (and older bikes in general) are designed to different fitting methodologies which make the bikes handle differently.
Look at old photos and you see a large frame with a high TT, "a handful of seatpost" under the rider, and a down-sloping stem. Now bikes have lower TTs, longer seat posts, and up-sloping stems.
actually.. keirin frames tend to be more modernized in their dimensioning/geometry than 80s italian pistas w/ their usual squared dimensions. most keirin frames seem to have 1-2cm longer top tubes than seat tubes... and a modern relaxed headtube angle of 74ish for stability since their tracks are longer in general ..400-500m .. compared to 250-333m. current sprint frames also aren't as steep in teh HT as they were back in steeldays... but make up for this w/ a higher bb. about 2cm i believe. anyways.. for comparison. my 87 pinarello is 76/75; 55.5 squared w/ a 40mm bb drop. measured on a surface plate.
njs bikes are very refined and extremely well built.. engineered w/ tight triangles and stability in mind. also the njs frames tend to accomodate japanese body dimensions and style... w/ lots of leaning over and lower saddles to leverage their downstroke. which is must since they dont allow clip ins.