Originally Posted by
Sy Reene
Interesting convo. By way of comparison, and partly to blame for my curiosity, my bike has a 74d HT with 40mm rake fork, giving me about 56mm of trail (almost identical setup to a modern Emonda fwiw). I get that slacker HTs can enable more tire clearance for Endurance bikes, but is there really a link between trail/stability and the promise of 'all day comfort' or whatnot that is used to market "Endurance" bikes? I can't say for myself that there's a degree of 'twitchiness' that contributes in any way to making longer rides less comfortable.
You need to qualify your remarks with a frame size. 56mm of trail is small, but not unheard of in the larger sizes. 58mm is thought by some to be magical for some reason, while the Italian brands favor more trail. The famous LOOK 585 had 58.2mm in all but the two smallest sizes. My size S had 64.4mm and the XS had 67.6mm.
Endurance bikes should have more trail so they're not twitchy at average speeds, but their main attribute is more stack height and shorter reach for a more upright position.
A common criticism of bikes with more trail is steering instability when climbing at 4-6mph. I've got no trouble with it. On fast descents, they're rock solid.