Originally Posted by
Bluechip
Optical illusion? Or does that Bianchi have a 650 front wheel?
Good catch. Definitely a no-no. A small bike shouldn't require a 650 front wheel. I know the terry bikes did it for women, but those frames are for very short people (below 5 feet generally.) (Actually I think they used 24 inch front wheels?)
Originally Posted by
jacobsever
And honestly, the reason is 90% superficial. I hate sloping top tubes.
I'm confused. Why not buy a bike that doesn't have a sloping top tube? May be a bit harder to find with it being small, but switching out to a 650c wheel would mess with the geometry and handling in ways that I wouldn't want to deal with. Increases the head tube angle, decreases trail, and compromises handling making the bike twitchy. (I think all those statements are correct, please somebody correct me if I'm wrong.)
Sloping top tube bikes only got popular in the late 90s if I recall correctly. Plenty of gorgeous and worthy bikes around before that.