DI2 Depression.

[nuliajuk]

Heck, we're still left out in many ways. I'm frustrated as I look to upgrade my CX bike. If I want something more than entry-level frame and components I pretty much have to go custom...and at just under 5'4" I'm not THAT small, but women still make up a fraction of the field at local races (I think there were only 6-7 of us at yesterday's race...out of hundreds of racers. Most women I've ever seen in a day at our area series is in the neighborhood of 15). Just finding a frame small enough in the first place is a challenge, since the bottom bracket height is so much higher than on a road bike. To find bikes with top tubes that I can clear means that anything larger than a 44 (comparable to my 48cm road bike) is generally going to be too big. I love my Redline and was drooling over their carbon/disc Pro model...which starts at a 48 and would be far too big for me.

Believe me, it's way better than it was 20-30 years ago.
Part of the problem with 'cross bikes, I think, is that they can't have a sloping top tube because there wouldn't be enough clearance to carry the bike over the shoulder. Compact frame geometry has created smaller frames that weren't possible years ago, but no-one is going to make a cross frame like that.
edited to add: Probably not quite what you had in mind, but this 'cross frame goes down to 42cm:
http://www.somafab.com/archives/prod...ble-cross-disc