BoSoxYacht

No, not really.

Yellowbeard

I like both level top tubes and sloped, aesthetically, as long as they slope up towards the head tube and as long as the top tube and the seat stays meet the seat tube at the same height. All else being equal I'd choose level, though.

Practically, I prefer level top tubes. Easier to measure a frame and carry up/down stairs or throw the bike over your shoulder.

lukewall

Sounds like another choice for traditional geo over compact because of practical reasons that don't make sense.

Easier to measure? Slap a saddle and post on a frame, get it the height/fore/aft for you, then find the appropriate stem to get the desired reach/drop. That process is the same for a traditional or compact geo frame. Do you need extremely precise sizing? Like you only ride bikes with 52.625c-c top tubes so the 50c-c just won't cut it? Besides, every company had a slightly different method for measuring frames, so I just take their frame sizing as a rough estimate to start from anyways.

And easier to shoulder? I hope you realize they make cross frames, bikes designed to be shouldered, with compact geo. A seat tube on a compact frame would be 1-3 cm shorter than a comparable traditional geo frame; making the traditional frame marginally easier to shoulder and probably not a deal breaker.

There's no problem liking the aesthetics of traditional over compact frames, just get your facts straight and don't try to hide it under the veil of practicality. Your practical argument for traditional vs compact is as illogical as some of the arguments I hear for steel frames over aluminum.

JohnDThompson 

They've all drunk heavily of the marketing Kool-Aid that holds there are significant structural benefits to a sloping top tube.

Yellowbeard

[shrug] Point taken. I wasn't actually trying to rationalize anything, the margin by which I would prefer traditional geometry (for aesthetics or any other reason) is terribly small. I don't even own a bike with a sloping top tube and haven't since my mountain bike was stolen, so I was doing little better than daydreaming. Cheerfully withdrawn.

Mistawes

Sloping top tubes are for MTB's in my oppinion! Seeing a sloping toptube with drops look strange to me!

Each to their own, it's just a pet hate of mine!

Understanding

personally, i don't care as long as it rides. I like level top tubes and everything, but it's not really that big a deal. I tried looking up why they make sloped tubes instead of level tubes, but if the bike fits and rides fine, is there really a problem?


*edit: i think what it is, is that we're all used to level top tubes, especially if you grew up with some 70's or 80's road bike. It's what we think a bike is supposed to look like.

icyclist 

>i think what it is, is that we're all used to level top tubes, especially if you grew up with some 70's or 80's road bike.<

I'm not so sure. At least for me, when I started seeing sloping top tubes on road bikes, I thought my own road bike looked old-fashioned. I still have it and it still looks beautiful to me, but I like the look of sloping top tubes on my newer bikes, mountain, road and fixed.

Sloping tubes conquered the world of mountain bikes, they make up a goodly percentage of road bikes, and while I'm not so sure they'll ever dominate single geared bikes, I don't think sloping top tubes are going away anytime soon.

jhaber

doesn't a sloping tt design make it easier for the big companies to make more frames in different sizes for some reason?

lukewall

Something like that. Giant uses S, M, L sizing for their frames so they can cover a larger range of frame sizes with less frames. So instead of making 6 frames in 2 cm increments to cover the range of sizes from 50cm to 60cm, they cover it with 3 or 4 frames and use stems to make reach adjustments.

blankgen

Speaking as a hipster and a road cyclist, it is a non-issue for me.

JohnDThompson 

It allows them to fit a wide range of body sizes on fewer discrete frame sizes. Bike shops don't have to stock as many different sizes, and the manufacturers don't have to make as many.

wristwister

I looked at and rode about a bazzillion bikes looking for the perfect fit and feel. When I started my search I really didn't want a sloping top tube because I'm old school and it just didn't look right. Then I sat on the bike I bought ... it was the one. Then I rode it ... absolutely perfect fit. Kinda hard to say why, I think it has to do with the way the drop bars can be positioned on a slope-tube bike. Also, I'm pretty tall and on this bike (58") the tube just barely clears the jewels when I stand flat footed, yet the frame feels plenty big for me. Whatever ... it just fits better, and now I'm a slope tube convert.

oldfolksmashers

Yeah, then why do Specialized and Trek do sloping top tubes and frame sizes in 2cm increments? Sloping top tubes are not intended to simplify frame sizing. They were designed to lower overall bike weights, since seatposts were made stiff enough to allow having two fists worth of seatpost with no performance consequences. Sloping top tube = shorter frame tubes = less material = lighter weight.

Take two frames with the same head and seat angles and the same effective top tube lengths and head tube lengths. All other measurements are the same. One has a 61 cm seat tube. One has a 55 cm seat tube. The seat is 68 cm's from the center of the bottom bracket. The bikes will ride exactly the same! The only difference is the angle of the top tube!

The DSF

The stability of the bike is also improved as is the overall stiffness and the centre of gravity is lowered. Hence all state of the art "track bikes" no longer have horizontal tubes. They are not made of steel either!

amor fati

I have yet to meet anyone in the ss/fg community that frowns upon the Brooklyn Machine Works Gansta Track.

JohnDThompson 

It also means: longer seat post = longer unbraced beam between the frame's seat cluster and the seat = more material needed in the seat post to keep it stiff = more weight in the components. So you've taken weight off the frame and then added it back into the seat post.

wristwister

... unless it's an aluminum frame with a carbon fiber seat post (my case). Then the seat post is light, but there's more shock absorbing carbon fiber isolating your butt from that stiff aluminum frame. This would appear to be an excellent argument in favor of the sloping top tube.

JacoKierkegaard

I'd say it depends on the styling of the bike, really. My bike which has what I'd call "classic" styling, would look like ass with a sloping TT. The S-Works Langsters, on the other hand, are freaking beautiful, especially with a set of Zipps or something similar.

I guess my general guideline would be that sloping top tubes look best on bikes with a really modern vibe.

elTwitcho

At first I didn't like them simply because of aesthetics. Now, having seen how some people desperately need to rationalize why everyone should like the aesthetics of their bike, I hate sloping top tubes for the amusement factor alone.

Johnny Nemo

It's frowned upon because it makes your top tube pad slide back onto the seat post.

Abe Froman

It seems to me that the larger the frame, the more pronounced the slope. The taller frames with sloping top tubes don't look as good to me as the same frame that is smaller. Not bad, just different. I'm a Langster rider, and I really don't give two ****s about top tube slope.

lubes17319

iamthenoise

i dont think anyone here rides their fixed gear hard or seriously enough for a sloping top top vs. straight one debate to matter outside of aesthetics.

pyze-guy

Best reason so far.