• Back to my geometry question - I was just looking at the Arkose and
    I'm now thoroughly confused - it's beyond me what some manufacturer's
    thinking is here.

    For my height (181cm) they suggest a size large for the Arkose-
    eff.top tube of 578mm, stack of 607mm and reach of 398mm!

    Whereas Vitus suggest a medium - eff.top tube of 545mm, stack of 568mm
    and a reach of 371mm

    That's an insane difference?

    Seems so - with respect to Vitus that's a pretty small frame for a 181cm rider imo. If correct (the web info may be wrong etc) that's less reach than a small Arkose.

    I'm 184cm and I did the Arkose geo / frame design for Pinnacle, I ride a L with an 80 or 90mm stem. The sizes are 10-11mm reach apart with even reach and stack gaps so you could ride a M as long as the saddle-bar drop didn't get too much for you.

    Reasoning for the long-ish geo or the general layout (398mm reach for a L) is that long stems don't have a place on an off-road bike imo, but the Arkose is part road bike and I want some weight on the front wheel in corners and the stem can't get too short without losing that road bike handling feel. So an 80-90mm stem works well and the slightly longer reach the bike has always had is based on that. The head angle isn't as slack as some since slack head angles also push the f wheel fwd beyond the bar and can cause a vague cornering feeling due to weighting imbalance - unless countered with a longer stem... and a long stem and slack HTA feels wrong to me.

    The stack is higher because I think the hoods default position of a race bike doesn't help on a gravel bike, if the bars set up a bit higher you're more likely to use the drops more often. Using the lower drop position for descending off road is illogical I know, as is riding a bike like this at speed off-road ... but it's fun if the road / off-road mix and ability is about right.

    Prob a bit long-winded there but if I couldn't justify the numbers...

    In short, it's not meant to be a road bike as in a trad road fit, so no need to refer to trad road sizing to size up an Arkose or any other similar bike.

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