LeeG

I am now in a place where 95% of my riding is off road, hilly and rural. I no longer go fast although I am getting into better shape. Got a Rivendell Clem Smith a few years ago and a modern REI hardtail last year. The Clem Smith was a bit of a revelation about very long chainstay geometry providing ride comfort in unpaved settings for easy speeds. So as I’m looking around it looks like Rivendell and Jones Bikes are the only folks making very long 20”+ chainstay bikes. Sure suspension enables one to fly down bumps but I really don’t feel like risking unintentional dismounts at speed these days. Touring bikes are around 17.5” chainstays which is not much longer than road racing bikes of the 60’s. And nearly all the hardtail or gravel bikes that take 2.6” tires are stuck in that 17” territory.
The long unsuspended bikes seem to be closer to the geometry of the bikes I see in pictures from the early 1900’s accounting for differences in modern fatter tire sizes. I guess I’ve become an outlier.