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Old 06-23-20, 12:02 AM
  #22  
Chr0m0ly 
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Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: Back in Lincoln Sq, Chicago...🙄
Posts: 1,670

Bikes: '84 Miyata 610 ‘91 Cannondale ST600,'83 Trek 720 ‘84 Trek 520, 620, ‘91 Miyata 1000LT, '79 Trek 514, '78 Trek 706, '73 Raleigh Int. frame.

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Originally Posted by dddd
Out of curiosity, and because I also have a Trek 720, I did a visual experiment that was quite revealing.

Extending your Miyata's stem quill up to where it is similarly (to the Trek's) about at saddle height, and then measuring down and forward to your hand's position while in the drops, shows that there is a HUGE difference in combined stem/bar reach from the same-height location along the two bike's steering axes.

In my experience, where as little as 5mm can make a perceptible difference, the inches difference I am seeing would seem likely to make these two bikes ride like different animals altogether.

I am expecting that your bikes also handle quite differently in terms of steering control while riding off of the saddle(???).
During high effort sprinting/climbing, they are the opposite of down hilling. the Trek feels more stable when I’m pulling up in the bars to leverage the pedals. The Miyata lets me pull it off line more, when I’m pulling up and back.

Also interesting, I’ve been using Strava to track my rides recently. I’ve been in MI at my in-laws, and I have that Trek, and the Miyata was not quite assembled, so all my rides have been with the Trek.

On the same 15 mile route, I shaved ten minutes off my time on the Miyata. I gained almost one full MPH on that green bike. It felt slower, and I was very surprised by the result.

To my eye, the Miyata clearly looks one size small for me, with that big tall stem up front, and the ends of the drop bars about even with the head tube. It looks off, aesthetically. Then I came across this add for a Surly LHT.










This blew my mind. The similarity between set up of the two caught me as very striking.
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