Originally Posted by
urbanknight
Oh really?
Joop Zoetemelk [pic]
Eddy Merckx [pic]
You should really cite references or personal experience, because I was there (well, in the 80's and 90's at least) and amongst us racers, a "fist full of seatpost" was plenty and 2-3" handlebar drop was normal. Some crit racers started to ride smaller frames for handling and aerodynamics (lower bar), but the compact frame wasn't around until the mid 90's.
I admit that my photo is at the extreme of one end, but it's about 1cm less seatpost than the bike I raced in 1994.
I'm asking because I simply don't know -- what were stem lengths like back then?
I was nearly fitted onto a 56 cm CAAD8 and would have had a 140 mm stem along with maybe 6 cm of setback and nearly two fistfuls of seatpost. This felt really awkward to me, so I exchanged it for a 60, which now has a 90 mm stem (down from the stock 110), saddle centered on the seatpost clamp (so maybe 2-3 cm of setback), and a "big fistful" of seatpost. The saddle-bar drop, I'd guess, is no more than 4 cm.
At any rate, it feels good to me.