Quote Originally Posted by indysteel View Post
Is it necessarily true that FB's are more upright? I took a look at Trek, Specialized and Jamis's offerings and, based on the elements of geometry I looked at (HT and TT lengths; HTA and STA) and didn't get the impression that the cockpits of the FB bikes were smaller than those of at least some of their road bikes. Maybe I wasn't looking at the right elements of geometry or otherwise left something out of the equation. It just made me wonder if FB and DB bikes are all as different as one might assume.
I suspect if you compare the stack heights and stem angles there will be enough difference to see why the handlebar heights are different. Then there are also those flat bars that also have a bit of up-sweep to them. Part of how I got my SUB drop bars a bit higher was a bit more length where the quill stem is inserted into the head tube and it has a up angle versus the road bike's stem is horizontal.