Originally Posted by
carleton
Southernfox, as you probably did on the road, you'll likely go through a lot of frames before you find the one that your body likes. The head tube on the one you have now will be a sore spot and you will spend lots of time, energy, and money trying to fit yourself around it. If you are looking to join the national team (or at least compete at that level), I'd suggest you get a bike with a more aggressive geometry and better dropouts.
You don't have to go through a lot of frames. If the frame you have now allows you enough adjustment with stems and seatposts, you'll be able to spend the next year dialing your position in. You'll just have to take note of your contact points in relation to stack and reach (in other words, as they relate to the BB). Keep these recorded, so you can compare how certain changes effect your performance or preferences (power output,drag,steering feel...). Once you settle in on a position you like, it will be easy to slot frames into the measurements and see how stems/bars/posts make up the differences. BikeCAD is how to do this in the simplest manner.Some frames will be way out of wack, even though the size label says it's what you need. Others will be bang on. Sponsor obligations may also come into play, which can make things a little more difficult if you need to ride a bike that's way out of wack for you.
As far as the second bold point goes, it would be better to dial in your position before you look at other frames. You might have certain frames in mind right now, but you don't want to go through the whole fitting fiasco again just because you decided on a certain high end frame. Most of the top tier frames are pretty close in performance, and there is enough variance in how they fit to find something that can tick off most of the boxes you need.