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What is the purpose of this bike? It's not your race bike so you're not going to be racing it are you? The 4S had the same thing for me with head tube length so I did run a -17 on it but that was being raced so it was a lot closer to my road race position than I'd care about if it was just my commuter. With the Tripster I've still got it setup in ultra position but I'm rarely going to be near the aerobars while off-road and it's not a stretch for the drops which is handy because the skinny bars means I'm fighting the bike a lot when it gets muddy (w/ slicks).
hippy-
What is the purpose of this bike?
To do everything the fast bike isn't able to. So, light off road adventures with big tyres. mostly though, wet winter road duties, bike packing/touring and commuting.
My only thing about replicating position is that I'm so comfortable on my Storck that I see no need to change it. Unless of course that long and low position is to the detriment of handling on this sort of bike - in which case I totally see a case for embracing the higher front end.
Anyway, I've had another look at sizes and the 55.5 will totally work too, so am about to pull the trigger. I appreciate everyone's input.
TTM
Great info, thanks very much.
The reason I was looking at sizing down was to try to reduce the head tube length, so I could be lower at the front and closer to my usual position. Everyone seems to be saying that I shouldn’t worry too much about the front being higher though, so I’ll have another look at sizing today.