On the fit-question posts:
I'm 6'5" with relatively long legs for my height (especially femers are relatively long). Both of my recent "good" road bikes have had 59cm top tubes and 130mm-forward-extension stems. On the
Raleigh, I didn't have a problem with knees bumping bar-ends because the bar was 46cm wide and/or because the bars were pretty low (and subsequently further forward) with respect to the saddle. The
repainted Centurion also has a 59cm top tube, but the bars are significantly higher (2" below the saddle, instead of 4") and I sometimes come close to bumping my knees when standing out of the saddle. The
Schwinn Traveler has a 63cm top tube and 90cm stem, with 45cm-wide bars that have a shallower drop, and not much issue of knees hitting bar-end shifters.
On most of my bikes I have the bars set with drops 10-15 degrees from horizontal. Understand that 20-30 degree rotation puts the ends of the drops further from my knees, but I've got mine set pretty much normally.
jcm: I'm not sure how my bikes could be set up more like Rivendell's, unless I had a larger frame (longer top tube, higher top of steerer tube) along with a Technomic stem. As it is, I've got a huge frame (the Traveler) without Technomic, and a more normal-big frame (the 63cm Centurion) with a Technomic stem.
I'm not sure what you mean by "tight" old frames, close coupled and responsive. Do you mean that the seat angle is steeper? I've usually got my saddle relatively far back on my bikes, so this shouldn't be so relevant. What do you mean by "spread things out" on these old bikes?
Here's pictures of the bikes, in order of their mention. Pictures are linked to larger images:
