Friday, May 30, 2008

Tale of the tape.

I have been keeping track of the most recent bike's measurements for a while just to see how the 29ers compared as I morphed over to the bigger wheels.

I had three bikes built up to measure at one time and I just added the Lenz to the group, so now I have four. It does give me a perspective to go by when setting up bikes.



Karate Monkey/ Prophet/ ActionTec SS/ Leviathan

back of saddle to center
of stem 34.25 33.5 34.25 33.25

effective toptube 24.25 24 23.5 24.5

top of saddle (middle)
to center of BB 30.75* 30 30.5* 30.25

back of saddle to
center of BB
measured horiz
with plumbline 12.5 12.25 12.5 13.5

BB height 12 12.75 12.5 13.5

h-bar height
from ground 40.5 41.75 39 41.5

wheelbase 42.75 45.25 42.5 45

Front center 26 28.75 25.75 27.125

chainstay length 17 16.5 17 18

* suspension seatposts


The Lenz falls kinda in the middle ground, the Prophet being the longest bike despite having the shortest CS length, owing to the 69* HT angle and the pretty generous fork offset, and the KM being the shortest. I really don't count the Action Tec SS as much as the others as it was built when 150mm stems were in vogue back in the 90s. The 23.5" TT shouts that out. I would consider a 25" TT on the next bike.

I was also curious as to how the straight up seat post on the Lenz would affect the saddle position relative to the BB. It actually placed me farther behind the crank than the other bikes with lay back posts, apparently the slacker ST angle is the culprit. I like that. I do notice the shorter cockpit just a bit, but it is OK, falling somewhere between the all-mountainish 5" travel Cannondale Prophet and the more XC Monkey.

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