can have a sloping top tube not be the right match for me?

ianbar

i have 2 bikes, caad 8 and enigma echo, the cadd is my winter bike so only just been getting back out on it. the thing that has struck me is how much more comfortable on the drops the caad is. it is generally bigger, but the echo is also xl but has the sloping top tube. could it be that a horizontal tube is actually the right style for me/

bondurant

More likely you have a more suitable drop and reach on Caad. If they were exactly the same I doubt you could tell the difference between one having a horizontal TT and the other not.

ianbar

yeah thinking about it yeah that sounds right, so maybe measure to see the difference? and look at changing stem?

ianbar

caad looks 2cm longer, but the drop (assuming saddle to handlebar) is waaaaaay more on the echo, i cannot see a way of changing that though?

bondurant

Plug both bike's dimensions into this and see how you get on.
https://docs.zoho.com/sheet/published.do?rid=p2rrnf78b800f51254a4981208481abdf96a7

ianbar

Bondurant wrote:

Plug both bike's dimensions into this and see how you get on.
https://docs.zoho.com/sheet/published.do?rid=p2rrnf78b800f51254a4981208481abdf96a7

thank you , have just tried this but im a numpty and have no idea what its telling me lol

bondurant

Meaning you don't know what stack and reach are?

ianbar

bit confused by the whole thing really, reach is a little foggy to me stack im fine with

bondurant

Ok. The important thing is if you have the frame dimensions, spacer stack height, stem length and angle etc. of each current bike. Once you plug these in you can compare how close the stack and reach with spacers and stem are, to within mm. You can play with the stem length, angle and spacer stack to see how close you can get to what you would consider acceptable limits. If you google 'cervelo stack reach' you should find a good definition of what each of these are. Reach was the most important metric for me. I knew I wouldn't be comfortable having a reach of more than xxcm without going with a stem shorter than 10cm. So it allowed me to rule in or rule out specific frame sizes.

bondurant

For instance you might find that flipping your Echo's stem might get you a lot closer to your Caad

ianbar

thank you for the explanation, i thought it was something like that. i will have a look in more depth tomorrow. without using the chart the echo is only slightly shorter but the drop from saddle to handlebar is way bigger, cant remember measurement now but say 5 cm on caad and 15cm on echo