Stymied by stem

[Trance Dance]

Thought I'd share a recent experience I've had with stems. My trance came specced with, according to most review's, a cockpit from 2005. 720 bars and a 70mm stem. (That said, back in 2005 I'm sure bars were 580 and stems were 120mm)

 

So first thing I did was to replace the oem parts with a 780mm bar and a 45mm stem. This seems to be the norm these days.

 

What followed was a couple of months of me not liking my bike! I couldn't get used to the set-up at all. I felt nervous all the time.

 

Changed to a LYNE pulse 60mm stem and what a difference! My bike feels so much better. Stable, fast, and confidence inspiring. The bike feels more balanced and strangely the suspension feels better, especially the front.

 

Moral of the story, experiment with different set-ups. Anyone else had a similar problem with too short a stem?

[Pulse]

Everyting in moderation.

I believe these changes should be made if needed, and within reason. To change (especially to such a short stem), bacause its fashionable os counter productive.

On my current bike I prefer a stem around 60mm, and bars a bit narrower at 750mm

[Grease_Monkey]

Yeah, secret is to find out what is right for you and your bike. It is bike and dsicipline specific. I run a 45mm stem with 785mm bars on trail bike, 80mm stem with 720mm bars on XC bike, and 70mm negative rise stem with 720mm bars on SS, and they all feel perfectly balanced.

 

As Pulse said, you cannot change your bike to what is fashionable just because it is fashionable. Trails bikes nowadays are built to take short stems and wide bars, bikes from 200X were not - so making the change is not always going to give you the results you hope for.

 

Luckily stems aren't stupid expensive, and with handlebars you can get a super wide one and move grips in without cutting the bar until you find the perfect width for you. Many people also make the mistake of making a judgement call on a set up after a 10km ride, give any set up some time to settle and get used to it before making a call.

 

Happy you found the right set up though!

[seven]

Yeah, secret is to find out what is right for you and your bike. It is bike and dsicipline specific. I run a 45mm stem with 785mm bars on trail bike, 80mm stem with 720mm bars on XC bike, and 70mm negative rise stem with 720mm bars on SS, and they all feel perfectly balanced.

 

As Pulse said, you cannot change your bike to what is fashionable just because it is fashionable. Trails bikes nowadays are built to take short stems and wide bars, bikes from 200X were not - so making the change is not always going to give you the results you hope for.

 

Luckily stems aren't stupid expensive, and with handlebars you can get a super wide one and move grips in without cutting the bar until you find the perfect width for you. Many people also make the mistake of making a judgement call on a set up after a 10km ride, give any set up some time to settle and get used to it before making a call.

 

Happy you found the right set up though!

I got a bunch of Rapidé stems to play around with and find what I liked.... But as GM said, spend some time (longer rides) on a setup to test it...

[Schnoodle]

I agree, everyone was saying you must have a short stem on my Nomad. Got to a point where I wanted to sell the bike, changed the stem and voila, loving it more now, moral of the story - do what makes you happy and not what the "norm" is.