Gunnar Cycles USA Message Board

Like understanding the impact of the consumer price index and inflation or torque vs. horse power...I've yet to hear a coherent explanation of what the heck compact geometry vs. traditional geometry really means. I'm especially interested in understanding what this application means on a Roadie frame. I've got an '04 56cm frame (love it) and am wondering what difference there would be in an '05 or, soon to come, '06 if it's going "compact". Is Gunnar going compact...if so why? Is this old school lover of traditional steel frames wrong to associate going compact with the trendy notion of going carbon? I frequently see descriptions of "traditional geometry" when describing frames...usually steel.

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Kneel to the steel...

Hi steel4me,

Let me try to give you the coherent explanation.

First, compact geometry first appeared by makers like Giant Bicycle. It is a way to offer a limited number of sizes (I believe 3 when they first launched them), and allow them to play a gram game by dropping the length of the seat tube. This has the net effect of a lower frame weight and is good for marketing.

Second, we feel overly aggressive sloping designs can compromise fit. Three or four sizes are not enough. Also, much of the weight you take out of the seatmast will come back in the length of a seatpost.

Third, we have been building sloping top tube designs for quite awhile as customs. Seeing the trend for riders wishing to sit a little more upright and the extremely low stack height of today's threadless headsets, it became necessary to raise the headtube height. In doing so, we had to drop the seat tube and slope the top tube in order to maintain the standover height.

The Gunnar semi-compact balances the need for a good fit with the advantages of compact and still use a standard length seatpost. You won't see it any more compact for this reason.

Good question.