Originally Posted by trace22clawson
OK.. so I took the Jamis out for a test ride today. It felt awesome! The bike I ride now has 40.5 cm chainstays. The Jamis Aurora has 44 cm chainstays. I'm interested in cycocommutes recommendation of bikes with chainstays 45 cm or longer. What other advantages are there to the chainstays that are longer than 45 cm? If I don't have the "heel hitting the panniers" problem on the Jamis with the 44 cm chainstays are there other advantages to having a chainstay that is 10 cm longer? I've heard that bikes with longer chainstays track better? or maybe it was bikes with a longer wheel base?
The surly LHT sounds real interesting though... and if they are going to have one that comes ready to ride out of the box maybe there will be a price break on the components. I'm not having much luck on finding out info on the Rocky Mountain Sherpa... what can you tell me about it?
A few advantages, none of them huge but still advantageous:
1. More heel clearance...if you need it. My T800 has 45.7 cm stays which are an inch longer than the Aurora. I can't come close to the bags...unless I take my feet out of the pedals and try to kick it
2. Longer stays give a bit more cushion to the ride. Those stays are your springs (a leaf spring actually) and the longer the spring the better the frame soaks up vibration. This is probably more important on large tubed aluminum bikes than on steel bikes. The larger tubes are stiffer to begin with so more spring gives a bit more comfortable ride.
3. More of the load can be moved further forward over the axle or inside the axles and still not be kicking the bags. Having weight cantilevered off the back of the bike makes handling twitcher.
I've toured on a bike that had less than 44cm stays and it was a handful, especially on mountain descents...something hard to avoid around here
My current bike is much more stable all around. Fast downhills are nice and stable. The bike handles a load well without shimmy or wandering on the road even up to 45 mph. Part of that is a stiff frame but part of it is a good stable platform to begin with.