Old 01-24-17, 09:01 PM
  #10  
Andrew R Stewart 
Senior Member
 
Andrew R Stewart's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: Rochester, NY
Posts: 18,003

Bikes: Stewart S&S coupled sport tourer, Stewart Sunday light, Stewart Commuting, Stewart Touring, Co Motion Tandem, Stewart 3-Spd, Stewart Track, Fuji Finest, Mongoose Tomac ATB, GT Bravado ATB, JCP Folder, Stewart 650B ATB

Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 4172 Post(s)
Liked 3,793 Times in 2,272 Posts
These are quotes from our OP, flik9999, with my comments after each.


"I noticed that vintage bikes dont seam to have much difference in size appart from seattube and top tube length."


And that's what today's bikes have. A different height with a different length. I agree that bar widths were less varied years ago but long stems have been around since I was a kid. We sold 140mm ones back in the 1970s. We also sold bike of a 21" seat tube length that had between 20.5" and 22.5" top tubes. So I suggest that a range of lengths were about back then. In fact I would say that these days there's a narrower range of height VS lengths then a while ago (as evidenced by the lack of short top tubed women's bikes that many manufactures used to offer but don't any more).


"These bikes were designed to be riden with short stems and the seatposts right down."


Not that they were designed this way as much as they were sold this way. Any of us who was in the business know that there is a "bigger is better" (just look at the gears some try to get on top of) mentality.


"If I converted to bullbars by cutting the drops off my drop bar and flipping would I be potentially less cramped? I heard that you can spread out better on bull bars than drops."


What is the difference between riding the tops/hoods of a proper drop bar and the "hooks" of a bull bar made from the same drop bar? No difference in reach (actually this is wrong because the lever hood extends the reach of a proper drop bar), no difference in width, and no mention of a different stem.


I strongly suggest that the OP seek in person help with bike fitting. A young body is very adaptable, for a while. But in time/miles the poor fit will catch up. Lastly a bike that is too short and not long enough ends up being poorly balanced WRT rider placement between the wheels. This makes for poor handling. Andy.
Andrew R Stewart is offline