dddd

I found one of the more-common XT-equipped versions of this bike in great condition for small money a few years back, and reading the geometry spec's of it had me rushing out to the garage hoping that mine was bigger than the tested 18" model. I was hoping for more top tube length, and mine is at least one size bigger though not much longer in the top tube, maybe 1/4".

Reminding myself that this is a "Norba XC race" style of bike, having a short head tube and long, horizontal 130mm stem.
So many ordinary bikes were also sold with the same sort of "stink bug" rider positioning, something that had me wondering at the time why I so much liked hybrids better than MTB's in those days around 1991 (the hybrids often had riser bars, always much wider than the published 53.5cm width of this bike's bars, with the grips NOT inches below the top of the saddle. The later Aheadset equipped bikes (with their steer tubes castrated to the minimum length needed to secure the stem) kept the tradition alive, only worse, and likely caused 500,000 riders to abandon riding about one week after purchasing their bike. I remember buying an new ($60) un-cut suspension fork crown/steerer for my brand new Univega Carbolite, just to raise the bars a couple of inches, even though I actually was racing Norba XC at the time (and which probably kept me from going over the bars a few times).