Centurion/Nishiki Sizes
 

I've had a few of these pass through my hands on the way to my shorter female family members, and I've noticed that the smaller you go, the larger the discrepancy between seat tube and top tube length.

For example, this nishiki prestige measured just under 49cm seat tube c-t, yet had a 54cm top tube.

This Centurion-designed Diamondback Master TG had a 51cm seat tube, but a 54.5cm top tube.

My cousin has both a small Lemans RS and Comp TA that share this size ratio as well. I found this interesting because the dimensions didn't fit the usual N x N standard, and I wonder how women at the time were supposed to deal with bike geometries this stretched out. Did Centurion simply decide that they didn't want to increase toe overlap, and left the top tube long so they didn't have to relax the headtube angle?

Also, any tips for reducing the stretch for female riders on one of these frames, outside of shorter stem/compact bars? :)