Years ago I totaled a mountain bike in a strange pinched-wheel-in-crack accident that bent the frame in two places but left me uninjured. When I commented to a

Years ago I totaled a mountain bike in a strange pinched-wheel-in-crack accident that bent the frame in two places but left me uninjured. When I commented to a bike designer/engineer that it was a strange failure, he said that it was intentional, at least on hardtail mountain bikes like mine. A bent frame is ruined but doesn't lead to a catastrophic loss of control. A detached wheel or twisted fork would be next to impossible to control to a stop. He looked at my frame and explained that that the two bends were in exactly the place they'd been designed to be, just behind the last butting. It's an impressive bit of forethought. My guess on road bikes with steel forks, though, is that it's a matter of aerodynamic performance calling for compactness to reduce frontal area, something that would be harder to do in aluminum, and for far less weight savings than the longer tubes on the frame. There's always titanium... The only big drawback is the cost...