Quote: As to whether or not the average rider will notice the difference..........read the reviews and posts here when people are comparison riding and you can tell that they notice. A pro may be able to articulate exactly what the difference is but you do the average rider a disservice if you think that they don't notice ride and stiffness differences. As BSLeVan points out, there are many more variations then just frame design but when comparing apples to apples frame design still matters.[/QUOTE]

Weeeell, perhaps, but at the risk of repetition, I'll say again: in what would these alleged differences inhere? Note that I'm responding specifically to the OP's original question: what noticeable performance/handling differences could be discerned as between compact and conventional frames. I simply don't understand what these could be. Differences in 'stiffness' there certainly are, as between frames, but those are typically attributable to materials/materials manipulation/basic frame geometry; again, I don't see where/how a sloping or not t/t on a road bike creates a 'difference' in this respect. Same goes for vibration absorption. Others claim differences in 'vertical compliance', but where would this come from on a more-or-less conventional diamond frame, compact or conventional? True, lateral twist (quite possible, just like a traditional barn door construction) can be perceived as 'vertical compliance', but typically diamond frames don't have such a quality (just like a barn door). Even if such a quality could be 'built in' through materials manipulation, surely it would be swamped by choice of tire, pressure, saddle/rails, even the choice of riding shorts! Vibration damping is an entirely different matter, but that's primarily down to materials, not basic geometry, I should have thought.