Originally Posted by
DX-MAN
Wow...you spoiling for a FIGHT, or what? Accusations? REALLY? Your first paragraph HERE, I mostly agree with; what we DISAGREE on is the significance of standover -- you think it's worthless, I think it has SOME worth, and just because I disagree with you, you wanna act like I'm an advocate for "STANDOVER IS ALL."
Standover is a STARTING point; nothing more. It's a RARE rider that gets well fit to a bike when he/she can't straddle the bike AT ALL, or when he/she has enough room for some delicate attention from an S.O.
I have my doubts that you could better fit a rider to a bike than I can, so (cue the DX Chop).
The MYTH is what you're pushing, that standover is useless; if YOU find it useless, all well and good. It HAS helped multitudes, and WILL help multitudes more. (And, in truth, most of the 'momentum' stuff came from Eddie B., so take it up with him -- let me know how that works out for you.)
I'm not interested in a flame war; you believe what you want, I believe what my experience has taught me is right for a LOT of people.
Easy, tiger -- if I'd accused you of believing in myths, spreading cynicism, or not understanding anything, you
might have taken offense as well.
Just to clarify, I have nothing
against using X" of standover as a starting point when trying out bikes in the store and then setting them up to fit, I just don't think that measurement has any worth once you're out riding a bike that is set up well for you. (Unless you're MTBing and regularly falling off your saddle.)