Originally Posted by
Velocivixen
I was wondering if you could talk more about this. When I wanted to do my mountain bike to drop bar conversion I ended up buying a smaller mountain bike frame (1995 Trek 820) for a shorter top tube length. I felt that if I tried this conversion on one of my ideally sized mtb's I'd be too stretched out. Anyway I used a Nitto MT-10 dirt drop stem with 100 mm. I used the longer stem because since it angles up more that horizontally and I wanted height that I needed since the frame was smaller. Anyway, who knows. This smaller size may not work in the long haul. It feels great now though.
...speaking in generalities, there are many more men with longer torso to leg ratios out in the world, so guys often go up a size to get a longer top tube.
Teh wimmenz, OTOH, are much more likely to have shorter torsos relative to height, with legs all the way down to the floor. So you are not unusual to seek a shorter top tube.
If it feels great, it's probably is great. Eventually, after you set up enough bikes, you get a feeling for what saddle to bar distance is good in various uses.