Originally Posted by bradtx

Prowler, There really isn't much difference between the crit frame and the road race frame until one needs to rail a tight turn at speed. The crit bike will simply show it's tail to a non crit geometry bike. There is a penalty for this however as IME there is almost no warning when limits have been exceeded and the bike then low sides. In addition to the steeper head tube angle the crit frame also had a slightly larger diameter down tube than the road race frame to make it stiffer. When integrated shifters became available the need to turn sharply became less important and a bike with road race geometry was quite worthy for crit racing. Probably the decline of parking lot crit races also played a part in the decline of crit geometry from the different manufacturers.

Your R600T is very similar to my '99 R1000T. With their level top tubes and 1" threaded headsets I suppose that they can be considered modern classics?

Brad