Originally Posted by
globecanvas
Actually they are 29er wheels. Also known as ISO 622.
CDR is a normal sized human (about my size and shape I think, therefore tautologically normal), but I think his particular preferred geometry collides with the minimum functional head tube size, at least on that custom frame, which is why the custom stem.
IIRC shovelhd runs a similarly extremely-negative stem.
That's the truth.
I've been pondering how I can get a 4-5 cm head tube so I can run a normal stem (current head tube is 9.5 cm, 2 cm headset, so 11.5 cm total height). It would be cool if it ended up sort of like a TT set up with the stem/top tube in line, but not sure how to make that happen. As it is the bar clamp happens to be in line with the top tube so design wise it would look "proper".
I thought about a "through-head-tube" but I don't think that would fly (a la Renault Elf TT bike). Another option would be a TT type fork with the stem in front of the head tube (BMC TT bike among others), but again not sure how that would work. The final and most probable option would be to raise the BB so that the relative bar height goes up. If I were to do a UCI race I think that's what would have to happen to make my bars UCI legal (minimum bar height is defined and my bar is a bit low). I think a 1-1.5 cm BB height increase would be legal.
I have short legs so the whole bike has to shift down, that's the reason for all the lowness.