Originally Posted by
gsa103
To some extent it depends on the era of the bike. Older bikes were mainly optimized for riding in the drops. Modern bikes are primarily set for riding on the hoods with the drops being an extreme position for descending. As a result, you'll see much more saddle to bar drop today than on classic bikes. Bikes of your particular vintage are to some extent a transition and can be set either way.
Is this really the case? I'd think the opposite was true. My mid-80's race has the top tube parallel the ground, which seems like it'd set up for more saddle to bar drop than my 'modern' alu and CF frames, both of which have much more pronounced sloping TT's.