Thanks for the feedback. I guess it's just a Rivendell thing. Personally, I don't care for it as it makes a large bike just that much heavier. The 60cm Stanyan doesn't have the double tube while the 59 San Marcos does. Maybe it's the really tall HT on the SM. I'm leaning toward the Stanyan mostly on look and price but that one has an overly short HT. Don't see why they can't do something in the more average range.
Originally Posted by
MichaelW
It's an old fashioned solution to stiffening large frames back from when the only tubing was standard 1" diameter. It also allows a large frame to be built in a lugged fashion.
If you are looking for a particular style, its an OK solution. If you want the optimum design, it will have to be in welded, oversized tubing.
An oversized head-tube using a modern standard size will be stiffer and require less support in the large sizes.
I didn't know steel frame tubing came in larger sizes. I thought it was only aluminum that they could do the large oversized but thin walled tubes. Maybe it's just a weight thing. Oversized steel would probably be heavy.