Quote Originally Posted by Wahine View Post
FurryBlue - I think you did a very good job of explaining the effect of seat tube angle on cockpit length ... But all in all, top tube length is a huge component of reach and the concerns these women have about the reach of these frames seems justified.
Thanks Wahine. I don't mean to discount the concerns of those for whom the BV mixte may be a poor fit. I did want to point out that comparing fit between bikes strictly from top tube length alone is inadequate.

Designing stock bikes that are not intended to fit a specific person is kind of tricky. As has been pointed out in various discussions, many women fit the long legs, short torso model, but some don't.

This discussion started out with comments on the BV saying "what were they (BV designers) thinking" and my point is that I can well imagine what they were thinking - they were thinking about a small range of sizes based on 700C wheels and one size with 26" wheels, and the BV geometries are roughly what one would come up with given those parameters.

I agree though that to better design some stock sizes specificially for women who have long legs/short torso I would do the following: i) use slacker seat tube angles, ii) have several sizes using smaller wheels.