Originally Posted by cdmurphy

Just for another datapoint, I'm just a hair shy of 6', and have a 35.25" inseam. (So, long legs and arms, not much torso.) I typically ride 58-60 cm vintage bikes, but with top tubes in the ~57cm range, and usually 70-80mm stems in conjunction with period correct bars with ~10 cm of reach on the bars. While it's true that a shorter stem will quicken the steering, it's not night and day. Trail, head angle, tire size all play a large role in handling. Also, you can get used to quite a lot. Something that feels "dead" or "twitchy" to one rider, may feel perfectly normal to someone that rides it regularly. Just take a look at some of the mustache or albatross bars that put the riders hands almost even with the stem, or even behind it. They seem to handle just fine by all accounts.

Riders with our body type will usually do best trying to find frames with shorter top tubes in relation to frame height. Seat tube length is almost irrelevant. When looking at a potential frame, it's top tube length I care about most, with the caveat that the seat tube, or at least the top of the head tube needs to be tall enough that I don't need to use a massively tall stem to get the bars up to within an inch or two of the saddle height. Also keep in mind that your acceptable fit has a lot to do with your flexibility and core strength. This will change over time as well, so what's comfortable as a beginner, will almost certainly be too upright after several years of riding / working on core strength. I'm riding with the bars about 3-4 cm lower, and about 2 cm further out now, then when I started riding a few years ago. I'm sure with more work and time on the bike I could be comfortable even lower.