Interpreting frame geometry
 

Apologies for asking what is a rather basic question - I couldn't readily find an answer through forum search.

I've been riding my Raleigh Competition for a little over a year now, and am starting to look around for my n+1=2 (not counting my older commuter bike). In my first year of riding, I discovered that I enjoy the competitive aspect of cycling, so after getting my feet wet in a few training races this year, I plan to do more racing next year (purchased my license yesterday :)). So I'll be looking for something with reasonably race-oriented geometry (probably a mix of road races and crits) - but whatever I get will be my main bike, so it shouldn't be too uncomfortable on long rides, either.

Problem is - I have no idea how to translate the frame geometry specs that most manufacturers' sites give into a sense of where frames sit on the aggressiveness/comfort scale. Having really only ridden one bike, I don't even know where my current bike falls, although I know that my position on the hoods is more upright than that of most of my cycling buddies, so I figure it's closer to the "comfort" side of the scale.

Are there any easy to apply heuristics that I can apply to the geometry specs to get a quick sense of where a frame sits on the continuum?

geometry is very related to frame size.
most 'performance' oriented bikes are well within race oriented specs - what you like has as much, maybe more, to do with it...
there may still be more 'crit' oriented bike out there, but a good general 'road' spec will do as nicely. Crit bikes tend more towards 'track' type geometry (steep head tubes, high BBs, short TTs, short HTs...)
even more 'comfort' oriented road specs, like a Spec roubaix, can be raced, and you can get low enough without cost - bend the elbows a little more...
a thumb's width or less between the rear wheel and the seattube is gonna be ballpark race spec. Two fingers or more space is more comfort/touring oriented - but that's not hard and fast either.

I'd consider:
1. race what you have until you get a season or so under the belt.
2. work to getting a good 'position' which works both for power as well as comfort for race length duration. learn and develop the subtleties of cornering, group riding and reading the race.
3. get a solid set of race wheels and race rubber - use what you have now for daily training
4. pay frequent visits to T-Town (trexlertown) and get to know some of the regulars - there's a lot of experience out there, all trackies ride the road also. There used to be a lot of road rides which went out of there, BITD.
5. Joining a local club is prolly the fastest way to improve and cover all the above points.

your position/flexibility will change as you put more time into race centric riding, so buyin now may mean buying again sooner.

There certainly will be bikes you'll eventually like better than your Raleigh Comp, but that may change, just from April to July...

Thanks for your thoughts and suggestions. I've got a few of those things covered, I think :). I live just a couple miles from the Velodrome, so my few training races this past August/September were at the (early race) Thursday night series. I'm joining a team for next year, and between lunch rides with a group of colleagues and Sunday morning derbies most weeks, I'm pretty comfortable in fast group rides. Of course I don't need a new bike - it's just that that year-end bonus is giving me a nice excuse to spend some cash without too much guilt :D
I've been wavering between getting a new bike and getting a new wheelset. I think I'll go for the latter first, but am still interested in getting better at interpreting the frame-geo diagrams for various models and manufacturers. Because there's no doubt an n+1 is in my future somewhere...

The only way to "interpret" frame geometries is to ride the bikes. Since even very small changes in tube length or angle can affect the ride, it's difficult or impossible to simply look at a frame geometry spec sheet and say "oh, this bike would be perfect, that bike would not". At best, you can get a rough idea by comparing the geometry of your bike to others but you'd still need to ride the bike to be sure. Also, a lot of bike manufacturers can change the ride of a bike simply by changing the carbon fiber mix and layup. Orbea does that, so does Vilier, Trek, etc. The Trek Madones will differ in headtube height but what will a centimeter difference mean to you?

"Understanding Poetry,' by Dr. J. Evans Pritchard, Ph.D.
To fully understand poetry, we must first be fluent with its meter, rhyme and figures of speech, then ask two questions: 1) How artfully has the objective of the poem been rendered and 2) How important is that objective? Question 1 rates the poem's perfection; question 2 rates its importance. And once these questions have been answered, determining the poem's greatness becomes a relatively simple matter.

If the poem's score for perfection is plotted on the horizontal of a graph and its importance is plotted on the vertical, then calculating the total area of the poem yields the measure of its greatness.

A sonnet by Byron might score high on the vertical but only average on the horizontal. A Shakespearean sonnet, on the other hand, would score high both horizontally and vertically, yielding a massive total area, thereby revealing the poem to be truly great. As you proceed through the poetry in this book, practice this rating method. As your ability to evaluate poems in this matter grows, so will, so will your enjoyment and understanding of poetry."


Bicycles are not poems, they cannot be scored on a piece of graph paper.

Google "bike geometry". Click on results. :)