Or am I just unfamiliar with "Race Bike" posture?



From a teaser for a new $1099 Carbon Bike with Shimano 105.

That's too much of a drop for me. My saddle height is maybe 3 inches above the handlebars.

That's all I can say, other opinions may vary.

It's a marketing photo, trying to capture a certain sporty look.


The bigger problem is how to ride it with no pedals...

... and telling people, "I have a blue bike, but it's mostly black".

If it gives proper leg extension, then no, it's not too high.

Yes it is too high. It is a marketing photo. If that is the actual saddle height of a real rider, then that person is riding ridiculously too small a frame size.

More common than you'd think these days.

I'd get on the phone to a handful of pro race teams then, they need some advice: The bikes of the 2015 Tour de France | road.cc

this ... the way bikes are set up to race has changed over the decades..

+ Younger racers are more flexible, than those twice their Age.

You can Of course make different choices ..




./.

I wouldn't say high. Tipsy, maybe, but not high.

Is that similar to the question, does this make my butt look big? Answer: No, your butt makes your butt look big.

To the OP,That's common for racers who ride the hoods and rarely use the drops except when sprinting. A lot of non pro cyclist try to adapt that "look". To achieve that look It helps when the top tube is slanted, you're flexible, young, and only ride the hoods.
I'm pretty flexible, yet still can't see me doing that for more than 90 minutes.

Pretty high, man. Pretty high.

Kind of reminded me from anime series called Yowamushi Pedal. That character have smaller bike but his body is oversized.

Those modern race bikes make C&V bikes look downright primitive, which in comparison I suppose they are.

But given the saddle/bar drop distance, a strong case could be made that the frame is too small for the rider.

Don't disagree there.

Loading the picture into a graphics program we can determine that the wheel rim diameter is 1028 pixels, the saddle to bb centre is 1356 pixels and the effective top tube length is 889 pixels.

We know that a 700c rim has an outside diameter of 635mm so using that we can convert the other measurements to millimetres.

The saddle to bb height 837mm and the effective top tube is 55cm.

Using myself my saddle to bb height is 760mm and I stand 182cm tall. So if we upscale using the 837mm saddle to bb the rider would need to be 200cm tall or about 6'7".

A 55cm top tube is about right for me so I would say the seat height is about 77mm (3") to high. Or about as high as seen in the modified picture attached.

Normal for race bike, not good for beer bellied rider .

Maybe they just have really, really long legs and an average torso. Like a heron or a flamingo... but a person.

Isn't one train of thought for pro riders to jump on the smallest frame they can fit themselves on? I.e., essentially the exact opposite of my preferred French fit,which has me on the largest frame I can haul myself onto with virtually no seatpost showing and bars almost level with saddle?

Sure, but how many of us are pro riders?

Notice how in your photo the stem is right against the frame, whereas in the OP's photo there is a significant height of spacers in there? It's a marketing photo with a made up set up. Plain and simple.

Anyway, some else has scientifically settled this above.

I always thought they (marketing teams) showed bikes like this to show how much extension was possible with the bike???

I probably couldn't even reach the handlebars with that much drop.

That looks ridiculous, what's that 12" of exposed seatpost? The saddle to bar drop is indeed large but someone like Ryder Hesjedal or Adam Hansen could actually ride it. No, what's truly strange is running that much seatpost in combination with a relatively short stem and several spacers. A rider would have to have a T Rex physique to ride that.

Some pros like to ride very small (for their size) frames with ridiculous amounts of exposed seatpost and 15cm stems with heavy negative cants. I personally don't get it, just ride a bigger frame.