Originally Posted by 531Aussie
also the shortening of the chain stays.
The conspiracy theory says that alu stays have to be as short as possible
because of aluminium's realtive weakness
My oldest frame ("old" 531, from the late 70s) has chain stays that are about 43cm(!!!), measured to directly in line with the seat stay. Most new bikes have 40cm or 40.5cm stays. One of my LBS guys says the shorter stays have also contributed to a crapper chain line, and therefore worse shifting, especially with the more cogs we now have.
That's true about the chain stay length, but steel frames have short stays now too.