Told you we had light kit, we're gear freaks with backpacking/walking kit
In that case, fit / frame size for a 6'5" rider aside, I'd not discount a bike like a CX/all-roader or whatever we want to call them. I'd not say it's a better choice either, to be clear - no axe to grind there.
For me, comfy as set up here ^ with enough kit to ride and camp and cook for 3 days. The geo on this bike is 71.5 HTA, 50mm offset, it's not what I'd call aggressive and there are more not-quite-/faux CX bikes like this on the market with similar numbers, generally the same HTA with less offset so more stable again, although that's less ideal with bags up front imo. Something like this is not such a sedate bike to ride as a trad tourer but it feels more like an audax bike on tarmac and copes with moderate off-road terrain well.
I'm guessing the fauCX bike is too steep to get an inch behind KOPS, so that's half an inch in front, and the Jones is an inch behind KOPS.
So on the drop bar bike you are sat further forward than me, but as I'm 67 with arthritic hands that's not surprising.
At KOPS and on the drops, I can have trouble keeping the front wheel down on the local double-arrow hill (if I bother to ride it rather than walk).....how do you get on sat an inch behind KOPS with (presumably) straight bars?
Its a year or three since I had a flat bar bike, but I remember sitting off the back of the saddle in order to get enough reach....I solved the reach issue with a 130mm stem and bar ends, which came to the same reach as the hoods.....that's when I decided I might as well just stick to drops!
Correct - the cx above has knee 10-12mm in front and 35-40mm saddle to bar drop. But I'm riding with my weight in the right place over the bike for something that's not that long between saddle and bar and there's only a light-touch amount of weight on my hands, I can unweight my grip and keep pedaling unsupported in that position. Core strength comes into this but my core strength's not great by any means. It rides up steep hills fine as it is, perhaps because in that situation being that half-inch further forward gives weighting between the wheels similar to having longer stay and slacker seat angle. BB drop on this bike is lower than a CX racer also and that helps. The MTB has Jones H-bars so it's got fore-aft grip range that offsets the potential negatives of the slack STA on steep climbs when seated - I just lean forwards a little to balance as needed. It also has a really low BB.
My CX bike sits me a little further forward over the BB but (for me) I'm not reaching that far forward or down either, my upper body isn't leaning forwards as it is on my road bike so my c of g isn't tipping me onto my hands- CX frame is 74 STA / 570mm ETT, with a + rise 90mm stem and 75-80mm reach bars. I don't think I set my bikes up to be 'negative hand-weight', just light. The Jones is lighter than most, the CX is light enough. Hence my take on it all that there's a lot more to a bikes layout than STA or any other single dimension, it's important that I'm in balance but also that I'm balanced over the bike, the bike being the way it is due to handling or component parameters as well as fit. So I have steeper STAs working well for me on some bikes, slacker on others. But what's been said in general here about a slacker STA is true and if I wanted to use a Brooks on the CX bike I'd be stuffed : )
