Hi folks

So I picked up an original build "race" bike. Steve Bauer Cyclone. It's the exact "same" frame as the one in the first two pics (taken from the internet), i.e. same size everything, but mine has original vintage 105 on it (pics to come).

It was Bauer's top-end frameset, and said to be the only hand-made frame in his lineup. There is a hanger for the race number, and other details suggested the full monty went into the design (Tange Prestige tubing, wishbone seatstay, chrome dropouts, etc.). I think it "only" had 105 because the Bauer brand probably couldn't command top dollar, but he wanted his best frame to be quality.

I didn't have a tape measure, but the headtube clearly identified it has a 53 cm frame (which is "what I ride"). When I went home, the seat tube indeed measured 53 c-c, but the top tube was an incredible 57 c-c! I totally do not ride that length top tube. I don't have any bike that is even close to those "dimensions". 52ST/53TT is the most "common" ratio for bikes I own.

So what gives? The first image shows how we get to 57 on the TT. Bike just kinda looks long. So... am I supposed to ride the next size down bike - such as image 3? (it's so tiny) The TT seems "long" (relative to the ST) on that too. So is this just a design quirk for Bauer race bikes, race bikes in general, or something from that era, or am I supposed to ride the 53, and shorten the stem and push forward the saddle? Or what?

Thanks in advance.

There were, according to a local bike shop expert, two kinds of Steve Bauer bicycles. The original ones and, later, the Japan built ones. In all my years, I have never even seen an original Steve Bauer.

Not one of the Japan built ones were marked as "hand made"(can the OP show some sort of information pointing to the bike's hand made origin) including this one that I picked up yesterday while yard sailing...

Others with more experience will chime in here, but I will offer some educated speculation. Those dimensions indeed are quite odd as 57cm TTs are usually on 60cm+ bikes (that I ride).

Since this is a top-shelf race bike, the 'race' part gives it away: long and low, stretched out for best aero positioning. We see this in the pro peloton today--smaller frames with super long stems.

Another top tube lengthening agent is head and seat tube angles. I don't know Bauer's frame geometry, but looking at the wheel-to-frame-tubes gap, it's tight both in front and out back. A steep head tube angle (74°+) and a slack seat tube angle (72.5° or so) have their tubes diverge from each other as they go up toward the top tube, thus lengthening the TT compared to a parallel HT/ST angle, or converging angle set (which is usually the case with small frames--slack HT, steep ST).

Thankfully, stem length, bar type and reach, and saddle setback can be adjusted to make this one work. How does it compare to your other 53cm frames when you line them up from the BB? Hopefully it's frame angles just exaggerating a slightly longer TT situation and nothing that you aren't able to deal with. How does it fit you at present? How does it ride and handle (in its original state)?

Purely conjecture on the unusual dimensions.
1. A custom bike.
2. 'Race bike' may have had short headtube for low position. How long is the seatpost?

In the converse situation, my Batavus has a 60cm seattube (CtC) with 56 toptube, 2cm shorter than than one might expect.

These dimensions were common in 80s and 90s for aero positioning. Also common in 40s and 50s, with expectation that even on quality lightweights many would be using North Roads handlebars.

What looks strange to me is the seatpost extension in photo one and the overstuffed upholstery on the handlebars in photo three. To others those features will be normal.

I bet the bike has big seat tube setback.
Bauer had definite ideas on what he thought made a good race machine.
Recall his extra long Paris Roubaix Merckx?

I would go with the long and stretched out position or an early adopter of huge seatpost and big drop to the bars and the bike is actually built for a bloke who might ride a 60 cm?

Similar to what Sr. Pelizzoli insisted was ideal for me.
I normally ride a 57X56 but he built me a 53.5 X 56.
Bike is fast and a comfortable all day ride, albeit with a much longer seatpost than I normally use:

A lot depends on how much bottom bracket drop there is. A high bottom bracket will help prevent pedal strikes in a crit or cx race. Typically, drop will be around 60 to 80mm. If you reduce that number( higher bottom bracket ), you may need to reduce the seat tube length to preserve standover height. That'll mean more seatpost showing but not much else. If you leave the top tube appropriately long, the bike still fits but it's not square.
Otherwise, if it's a custom build, short legs and long torso along with a desire for long and low will bring these sort of dimensions.

Most any frame that isn't too tall outright can be made to fit, but perhaps not in a way that leaves the resulting bike with good steering behavior, or with the handlebars far enough forward relative to the front tire to allow safe and efficient drafting.


What will help this bike fit will be if it has slack frame angles.


A slack seattube angle will shorten the toptube's forward reach by about .85cm per degree, which would then be compensated for by sliding the saddle forward or using a zero-offset post.


A slack headtube angle will allow use of a shorter stem without the tendency for steering heave when riding off of the saddle, but this would also leave the front tire further forward of the handlebars so drafting closely becomes more dangerous.


I got this 61x60cm Steyr bike to both fit my long-legged 5'9" frame well and still handle well, since it has slack 71-degree frame angles. A zero-offset seatpost was first fitted, then I settled on a 11cm stem that was slightly long, nearly perfect but for a bit of steering heave when I hit steep hills or sprinted out of the saddle. I then installed a 2cm wider handlebar made the steering heave unnoticeable however.
One more thing here is that the "safety" or "suicide" brake levers offer relief from what is still a long forward reach. So I can recover while riding by using the bar tops at times that would otherwise preclude access to the brakes, as while descending or in a paceline.
This bike still suffers the liability of a long front end, so I have to be cautious about drafting, but oddly it turned out to be my most-ridden of several modern and vintage bikes that I own, even on decently-sporting rides through the foothills with other mostly masters-class riders and racers. That is saying something since it retailed for sixty-something dollars back in the late 60's, so was Austria's much-lighter yet less expensive competitor to the Schwinn Varsity.

That's exactly what the original owner of this Kvale frameset had in mind when he ordered it.

Very cool frameset, but it will never fit me.

DSCN3096 by gomango1849, on Flickr

K. Here's the bike. It appears to be all original.


I'll mention that this probably isn't a custom build as all images of this bike (e.g. in first post) seem to show the frame with this particular rectangular dimension.

The two Austro Daimler's by Puch that have passed through my hands were 53 and 54 cm c-t-c on the seat tube, but both had the same 57cm top tube. They weren't race bikes by any stretch of the imagination. I found them to be rather comfortable, but I attributed that more to their compliant steel than the geo, but maybe it was the geo. They were fantastic built up with Velo Orange Milan bars. They could be built somewhere between a cruiser and a racer with some upright bars without feeling cramped.

Italian fit was box dimension, British and American have longer top tubes. Southern europeans have longer appendages, while northerners have relatively short to protect from the elements. Thus trump hands...he's German by ancestry.
If you're Roman greco or such go with italian....otherwise, we all make do:-)

good time to live under the maple leaf.

I agree, it's built for someone who normally uses a 57 tt.
That was the style at the time and has continued into now the sloped tt with alot of seatpost showing.
But whatever, that is a cool looking ride.