Well, go figure... I don't know a damn thing about tri bikes, my interest is in road v. touring v. mtb. Looking all over the internet I get all sorts of contradictory theories about how the body and the cycle frame interact.

Looking at pictures of my frame v. basically any touring frame, the seatpost is at a dramatically different angle, the chainstays are way longer, my knees are riding higher, my quads are like iron rods and I feel like I'm dragging anchor relative to the experience of bikes with tighter geometry. So I'm still pretty convinced that my body is actually engaging differently because of the frame dimensions.

I guess the mtb frames are designed to absorb shock in all sorts of different ways, and I can add flexibility to the list of reasons I'm dragging anchor here. Damn comfy bike though. Kind of worth it.