It seems like years ago how a road bike was supposed to fit was largely dictated by the manufacturer. Today it seems like if you narrow bikes down to a single category(let's say, for instance, high zoot racing bikes) they all seem to be fit in fairly similar ways. Lots of saddle-bar drop, similar seat tube angles and such.

In the old days, at least from my observation, it seems like everyone fit between Peugeot and Colnago. Peugeot had the least saddle-bar drop, and riders seemed to ride the largest bike they could straddle. Colnago adhered to what has become the de rigeur bike fitment today, where your butt was way up, and your drops way down. In between this there were many different degrees of fit/geometry combinations.

Does anyone have an explanation of why this changed, and what manufacturers held what ideals for their bikes? It seems fairly interesting to me anyways...