Mmm...shiny Columbus tubing.

How tall are you!! 

lovely baby! delivered at under 5lbs? I like the one with the green paintjob in their gallery.

Looking at the spec and knowing Monty's record for breaking frames I suspect he's investing in something that probably won't break and is repairable by anyone with a brazing torch if it does.

The only custom build Ive got is a tourer on which I wanted a very long top tube (58cm for a 53cm seat tube) and slack seat angle. All my other bikes I've been able to adapt by playing with stems and seat posts.

"Looking at the spec and knowing Monty's record for breaking frames I suspect he's investing in something that probably won't break and is repairable by anyone with a brazing torch if it does."

Looking at the size of the tubes (seat tube in particular) you're not wrong!  I'd have thought that larger diameter steel tubing on the front triangle would affect the comfort factor though.

Hello, Chinese seem to be blocking Yahoo so I can't email the gf.

The Trek rides fine - done 425km the last four days, hill climbs up to 35km long (!) along what was once the Burma Road/Stillwell Rd, cobbled surface in places for miles at a time, and still feeling fresh as a daisy. Why mess with what works?

Anyway - 'based on' i.e. with a slightly steepened seat tube and a headtube 20mm longer to eliminate all the spacers under the stem. The top tube will thus slope down at a higher angle to preserve standover height (and look cool...).

One lesser reason the geometry is essentially the same is because I want to see how much difference there is in the way this bike rides compared to the Trek. If the shape's the same, and the components are all the same (they will be), then any difference HAS to be down to the material...

The main triangle needs to be fairly beefy so it doesn't start noodling around when I've got panniers loaded front & rear. Everything's a compromise.