Somebody in 1 of these threads mentioned your preference has alot to do with what you are used to seeing. I am new to road bikes (coming from several years of casual mtn biking, and, before that, BMX/freestyle). As such, I am relatively unbiased, and I happen to think the semi compact geometry of my Klein (http://www.kleinbikes.com/us/road_bi...a_x/index.html) looks "better" than frames with oldschool geometry. The "classic" geometry frames look unecessarily large to me. The Aura-X looks sexy to me, and I am a man who likes women. Lance Armstrong may be a top athlete among bicycle riders, but that doesn't immunize him from dumb jock syndrome -- his alleged "girl's bike" comment sounds rather obtuse -- not a profound or well reasoned insight into the merits of traditional vs. compact.

After reading tons of posts on threads of this topic, I have concluded the traditional vs. compact debate boils down to personal preference, with no clear cut answer.