I raced in the '70s. I was/still am long and skinny with very little power and a lot of wind resistance, I got right away that I needed keep a horizontal back nearly always. My first season I raced a fairly standard bike fit-wise. Next season I bought the last year's Fuji Pro in the basement of the shop I worked at. 59 cm, steep 74 ST, longish TT', 75 HT. Quick, quick steering! Despite the much shorted wheelbase, it had toeclip clearance. I never touched. But if I put my fingers between the rear tire and seatstay, I'd lose 'em., Basically the bike I was riding before except with the BB shoved back as far as you could get it. This did several things. Seat was much further forward relative to the BB. Much more weight on my hands. But the huge change was that my abdomen was opened up, allowing much deeper breathing. Overnight, I was radically faster, stronger and had more endurance.

I flunk the weight centering thing. I flunk the weightless hands. I can still go all day upwind with a low back. (And I take seat position and tilt as super critical adjustments. Always nose down or it stats to close up my abdomen. And I will always be close to fanatic about handlebar shape, position, tilt, brake hood shape and position. I need really good landing places for my hands, especially as I get older.

Oh, and the tire balance issue. My Fuji put real weight on the rear tire despite my far froward position because the BB was so far back and the chainstays so short.. It handled like a dream (once I was used to how quick it was. That took weeks every spring.) I trusted it completely on unseen corners at race speeds I didn't get to choose. Every bike I've had since until my two recent customs put far less weight on the tire. Rear end gets light when I position for intense high speed corners. Bumpy and off camber corners get scary. On those bikes I have to remember to push back to weight that rear tire. The new customs go back to the steep seat tube and short chainstays. Great cornering without having to remember.

So my bikes flunk the metrics. But those extreme three (the new customs and old race bike) were all bikes I could put very long days on and suffer nothing more that the consequences of doing that much work. 175 miles twice on the race bike. Both customs have taken me 130+ in my 60s.

Bunny hopping - good skill to have.

Ben