Dropouts and Backend length.

[MIKE EVANS]

Just curious why companies cant just have a little longer dropout to allow more adjustment in the rear? It seems like they are hacking the rear dropouts down to nothing, (To save weight??)

I love my Colony, but with Tree Big Balsa pegs, the front of the pegs go right along the contour of the seat/chain stays, and yet are close to hanging off the back. Granted these pegs are rather large, but it still seems like there is almost zero adjustment in general on todays dropouts. Im going to be running smaller pegs as of later this week, but I dont foresee much extra adjustment. The tiny bit of extra weight would be negligible and it seems like the same frame would satisfy a broader market if you could pull the wheel back even an extra half inch.

Now, Im definitely not saying make the dropouts huge, gaudy, ugly or gimmicky. Im more just asking is there an engineering reason why this would be a bad idea? With the number of brakeless frames, brake alignment is not even an issue anymore.

Again, this is no new idea, or even mine. Dropouts used to be longer than they are now, and Im just wondering if there is any other reason besides weight savings to chop off the dropouts so short?

Just wondering,

MIKE

[pwh4130]

Besides the weight thing, BMX dropouts got smaller so they wouldn't hang up when doing grinds or bend.  What does that have to do with Flatland? Not much.  Of course they could make them longer but there isn't much demand. 

[byke]

I like that frames are more specific to exact specs.
If a person designs a frame with specific measurements, why should there be great adjustability in one part of it? yes its annoying when too many frames are the same and its hard to find a specific geometry. But thats life.