Originally Posted by
tjspiel
I'm not knocking roadsters but the slack geometry (BB is 3 inches farther forward as you measured) has an impact on performance that can't be compensated for by just moving your bars to same approximate position as a road bike. And if you're comparing to your Continental, that also has fairly slack angles compared to a racing bike.
You may be perfectly comfortable and be able to generate plenty of power with the bars on your Gazelle all the way down and your hands on the cross bar, but most people wouldn't enjoy that position for very long unless their bike was sized incorrectly in the first place. Might be fine for coasting down a hill, but pedaling hard for any distance? No. Of course that's not what people want a Gazelle for anyway, but that is why the path racers moved the seat forward.
Again you're missing the whole point, roadsters are not comparable to contemporary track, or high performance road bikes and never were meant to be, but they can be set up to function well for a real world balance of comfort, performance, and utility, and if one wants to put the balance more towards performance they can deliver far better than the undeserved reputation foisted on them. They are not the slugs many try to make them out to be.
My 3 roadsters
1935 Raleigh, England.............. 2013 Flying Pigeon, China................. 2014 Gazelle, Netherlands