Bike Forums - Chainstay length question

Quote:

Originally Posted by howsteepisit

Also, a lot of true cyclocross bikes have a high bottom bracket, which is less stable than a lower one on touring bikes. I also think that since a lot of cross bikes now have carbon forks that thay are not a good choice, as I want a bike that if crashed (or when) is more able to withstand a impact load that carbon fiber can. I pick steel.

Luckily this bike is pure steel, and its not a true 'cross bike bike but a kind of touring/'cross bike so the bb is a little lower than on most 'cross frames. Not a lick of carbon on the bike.

I may have to play with the gearing but I'm used to lugging cargo around the city on my fixed gear bikes which have pretty high gearing (49x15, 49x16 and 43x15). Gears are somewhat of a luxury to me so I can deal with what I've got. At least they are easy to change. I will be bringing a set of downtube shifters in my pack as I have heard nasty stories of broken STI levers preventing people from shifting.

I will of course be adding fenders, lights, horns, flags and all sorts of other comfort/safety gear. Before I go ahead and buy a fancy set of racks/panniers I'll discuss our plans with my riding buddy and we will make the decision between trailers and panniers. From what I've read I like the sound of panniers more, but I've never ridden with a trailer so I don't really have a point of comparison. I guess it will come down to the heel clearance and load bearing capacity of my new 'cross bike.

I believe chainstay length is measured from the centre of the bb shell to the centre of the dropout, but one fo the posters in this thread said that most frame manufacturers list 'dummy' numbers that are the same throughout all the sizes of the specific frame, so they are not really dependable. Whenever I measure bike geometries I always go centre to centre so I would measure the chainstays no differently.