At 10:04 AM 05/07/2007 -0700, Jerome & Elizabeth Moos wrote:
>I've thought about picking up a women's Paramount for my wife if I find a
bargain. One thing I've noticed on those on eBay. The headtubes seem to
be very long compared to the seatube, which would place the bars high for a
"normal" amount of exposed seatpost. That is, it seems that if there were
a toptube connecting the seatlug and headlug, it would slope noticeably
upward from seatlug to headlug. I suppose this might have been done to
raise the bars as Rivendell much more recently has advocated. Was there
some other reason for this design feature? Did other makers of this type
of frame do the same?
>
This appears to have been typical for women's frames, using roadster geometry even on relative lightweights. I have a c.1984 Miyata 310 like that hanging in the garage that I originally bought for my ex. At the seat tube it's a 20" frame, but at the head tube it's like a 23". It looks like women who wanted to ride a ladies' frame while wearing a skirt also liked to be able to put both feet flat on the ground while sitting on the saddle when stopped. The fact that these bikes had drop handlebars was just the fashion at the time, just like mountain bikes are the fashion today.
John Betmanis
Woodstock, Ontario
Canada