What road bike has shortest top tube?

[GeoCam]

Kathi,

Thanks for the tip about head tubes. I hope I don't sound stupid, but I hadn't properly considered this aspect of bike fit. It only makes sense that raising the bars is another way to bring them closer, and I have been perhaps too focused on making sure they were horizontally closer. Does this mean that for someone with really short arms the bars will likely be higher than the saddle? It seems most bikes have the bars about even with the saddle or even lower. I'm going to start paying more attention to this!

[Kathi]

Don't apologize, I didn't know this until I had a bike fitting. The person who built my Aegis and the fitters of my other bikes didn't consider it either.

Heres pics of my two bikes the first is the Aegis. It's a long story but here's how it ended up for my short arms. The HT length is 8.4 cm.

The second is my custom bike. It does have spacers and is designed for me to go higher or lower depending on what is comfortable for me.

Compare the differences between the ht's. I think the Serotta Ht is something like 14 cm. The Serotta has a 1 degree slope but it doesn't look like it.

Also consider your shoulder width. Orginally I had a 38 cm handlebar on my Aegis. When I was fitted for my Serotta I found out I needed a 34 cm handlebar! Only one company makes handlebars that small but having the correct fitting handlebars helped too.

Trek Pilot's have a longer ht but wasn't long enough for me.

[Kathi]

Pics of both bikes.

[GeoCam]

Kathi,

Your bikes are gorgeous!

[Eden]

hmmmmm - I'd say it depends on how you want to ride, that you would want to start putting the handlebars up higher to achieve a little bit less length.
If you are looking for a more comfortable, relaxed style of riding - like touring then that might be a good route to consider.
If you want to race then you would want to try to preserve some of the drop.
It can be tough on small bikes in the first place to get much drop, just because the size of the wheels dictates how low you can go (unlike designs for big people who do have a lot of head tube to work with - most of my bikes the down tube and top tube meet or nearly meet at the head tube.... - even on the ones that have 650's)

Heck I've even got that same Salsa stem on one of my bikes, but put on the other way around, angled down, to achieve a bit less height for the bars, but I looked at my bikes last night and all of them do have some handlebar to saddle drop.

Another thing to think about, depending on your core strength and flexibility, somewhat lower may actually be more comfortable (if you are inflexible in the low back and hamstrings it can be the exact opposite - getting down low can be quite a pain). On an old bike I had was a bit too large, a bike shop tried to make it fit me by putting on a very long stem (it was a quill stem, so this had the same effect as have a long steerer on an more modern bike) It had a good effect on my knees and legs, but the more upright position put a lot of extra stress on my butt and lower back, which preferred to be somewhat more laid out. I can be fine on a very upright bike (like a comfort bike/cruiser), but the inbetween position was bothersome to me.

[Kathi]

Thanks GeoCam,

Your issue as I read it is finding a bike where you can get a neutral position. Both of these bikes put me in that neutral position. Once you've gotten the neutral position you can go up or down depending on what feels comfortable.

However, most stock frames don't have a high enough ht tube to allow a person with short arms to be in a neutral postion. Both of my bikes have spacers. On my custom frame I needed a much longer ht to achieve a neutral position but it wasn't possible because the standover would be too high, thus the spacers.

On the Aegis before adding the spacers and the stem I was way to low. My handlebars had to be raised 4 cm before I could get to a neutral position. It had nothing to do with the tt length but all to do with the ht.

Headtubes are only so long and there is a max you can raise your handlebars.
My Aegis has a CF steerer tube so only 3 cm of spacers can be put on it. So I needed a stem with 1cm rise to give me the 4cm of rise. Note that the Serotta doesn't have the stem with the rise because the ht was designed longer.

This is what I mean by neutral position. This is what I look like on my Serotta. I wish I had a picture of me on the Aegis before I made the changes.
There's a big difference.