New Age Bike Sizing
I grew up and started riding and racing in the days of the so-called "Double Diamond" frames that had horizontal top tubes and the bikes were for the most part sized by the seat tube. Then along came the "Compact" road bike frames and it threw me into a huge amount of confusion that to this day I have never really sorted out. When the bike makers switched over to compact frames I continued to ride large frames (X-Large and XX-Large) and continually became more and more stretched out with the 60-ish cm effective top tubes and wound up selling several bikes for half to a third of what I paid for them because I was tired of being in pain. Some of the shops tried to put me on a Large or a Medium frame to get the top tube under control but with me being 6'2" tall with a short torso and most of my height in my legs I was never comfortable having 18" of seat post sticking out. The thought of being ***** by a jagged piece of aluminum when the seat post snapped was something I could never get past.
Two years ago I got lucky and found a used good condition Fuji bike with the traditional frame and traditional geometry. My bike has a 59cm seat tube c-t with a 56cm top tube c-c. Even though my preferred size is 60cm or 61cm I bought this bike because from the first time I rode it the bike felt like it belonged under me and I have not regretted it to this day. I still have a fair amount of seat post sticking out but so far it hasn't snapped off and maimed me.
I have a couple of questions. Should the day ever come where I go looking for another bike I will probably have to content myself with a bike with compact geometry and risk being impaled by an 18" seat post snapping off but I guess that's the price for "progress" :-( I am somewhat familiar with Stack and Reach. My Fuji has a Stack of 60cm and a Reach of 39.5cm. If I look for a Compact Geometry bike with this Stack and Reach (or numbers that are close) will I be OK riding it and not in a lot of pain from being too stretched out?
Second question: I have never understood why the bikes changed from the Double Diamond configuration to the Compact Geometry. Just looking at the questions here in this sub-group there are a lot of people who are unsure as to bike fit and are struggling with understanding this Compact Geometry. Why did the bike makers change over to Compact Geometry? I was always taught "if it ain't broke don't fix it". Any thoughts??