Originally Posted by
cachehiker
I'm stuck with short legs but I agree that for most this is an overrated measurement. Concentrate on the cockpit length and the most influential item on that is effective top tube length. A 9cm stem and a 535mm top tube of my Soma Double Cross is my ideal road setup at 5'6". It's a little long for cross but I make it work. After all, I only do a few cross races in the fall but log 2000 annual commuting miles with it.
Seat tube angle matters, but so does head tube angle, and more importantly, IMHO, is head tube LENGTH and fork length!!!
What worked for me was a Performance Scattante XRL Cross. It took forever to find, but for the first time in my life I found a cross frame that lets me use a 110mm length stem. I got the 54, which has a 54 cm effective top tube and a 52 cm C-T seat tube. It's awesome.