Originally Posted by photojtn
Hi Tom, I think you got that reversed, My top tube on the trek 520 is 22" (C-C) rather long, thats on a 21" bike, the 520's made for touring, long top tube, long chain stay. My mountain bike or back roads tourer is considerably shorter (21" C-T frame). The stem takes care of the rest which is very fine tuneable from 0-120 cm's, some mfg's even more.
I don't have it backwards. Look at Trek's spec charts and you'll see that the 520's top tube is shorter than that of it's sport tourers or racing frames. At least on sizes of 58cm and larger. On the 520, other than being able to touch the ground without crushing the family jewels, standover height is meaningless. With the 520 it's all about top tube length. If you size the bike using one of Trek's road bikes as a guide you're gonna come up short. Mountain bike geometry is moot.