Originally Posted by keevohn

I'm not so sure that it's entirely marketing hype. I'd like to think it's more a reaction to the materials being used in bike construction today: what we consider 'normal' tube diameters were developed when steel was all that anybody used, and 'oversize' tube diameters bring out the better qualities of aluminum tubes. Handlebars seem to be a similar case, this time with carbon. It could be that the standard clamp diameters established with steel and aluminum bars were too skinny to safely execute in carbon, so the 31.7 clamp was developed to facilitate full carbon bars.

However... I do agree that integrated headsets and oversized/outboard bearings on cranks *are* crap.

And some eye candy... who you callin' oversized?!