Alexb,
I think it needs decals! You can actually put your name on it! :p
I notice it has quite a tall headtube, yet quite a short stem angle. Why is this? I would have been tempted by a slightly shorter top tube, and a stem giving a bit more rise, thus allowing for a less slopey top tube. But then there's probably a good reason not to do that?
I've spent months agonising over decals, fonts and names and also headbadges. In the end I decided I'd rather ride it whilst the weather is good.
As for the headtube - well, taller head tubes make for stiffer front ends and longer lasting headsets.
Taller a-head stems just means more spacers, which means less rigidity, worse front end alignment and shorter lived bearings. I also think they look pretty ugly.
The very sloping top tube is for a simple reason, to get the luggage down as low as possible. On my other bike when I'm riding out tof the saddle I can feel the luggage swinging the bike from side to side, on this one I can't. The saddlebag sits nearly 3" lower on this bike than on my Dave Russell.
Dave also designed the front end around a stem length of about 140mm. This ties in with my own feeling from experiments that stems around 120-140mm give very relaxed handling. If you shorten the stem on the same bike (I've tried everything from 150mm down to 90mm on the same frame (not this one)) the handling gets decidedly twitchy as you go shorter than 120mm.
There's a lot of geeky detail in the bike - I had a lot of time to think about what I wanted to change about the bikes I already have.
