New Giant XTC Advanced 27.5+ set up as a 29er singlespeed. Old bikes all have the old school steep geometry. 90mm +6 stem felt too long today, especially during mild descents. What length should I try next? As I already have a Renthal bar, I think I'd like to end up with some Renthal Apex which is +/- 6 degrees with available lengths in 10 mm increments from 30 to 90.
I’d split the difference of the Renthal range and try a cheap 60mm. If you are ordering through your LBS, they’d be sure to have a few lengths to loan you before you made a $90 purchase.
If you are going the online route, I’d try to borrow one from a friends parts bin for testing.
60 was my first inclination as well. And lets just say that my LBS is proving to be a very disappointing partner in my new build, so I'm on my own. Not too many riding friends, but I will check. Thanks for the reminder.
I feel ya. I’ve never had a positive interaction with shop guys after they hear I build my own bikes. Amazon sells some cheap Chinese made aluminum stems you might want to try. I think they are around $10 and are named Northbear or something like that.
edt Nice build yourself! What size frame do you have, and what are your 'personal dimensions' like. Mine's a medium and I am 5' 10' long legs and short arms. jake2185 Good tip about the cheap Amazon stems.
I'm running a 70mm stem with 800mm flat bars. Found it used on a local FB classified group. I used trigonometry to figure a place to start. Old bars were 720mm with a 120mm stem. I calculated with 800's the stem should be between 70 or 80mm to give me the same reach number. 90 felt too long and the 70 just felt good.
I don't know if that's the right way to figure it out, but it worked for me.
I have been tinkering along these lines as well. What measurements did you use? With pedal all the way at the bottom, I measure from there to the bar where it hits the stem. I also measure from nose of seat to the handlebar. On my steep old school 26" the first measurement is about 1" less than on the slacker new school 29er. I will mount a $10 45mm stem from Amazon this weekend, and see what too short feels like.
As I mentioned in another forum... Once you get the stem and bars mounted, you can roll riser bars fore and aft a little bit to dial in your reach. Just roll your brake lever opposite to compensate.
Update: I rode with the cheap 45mm 6degree stem from Amazon. Experienced zero downsides from dropping 45mm in length. Much better standing climbing. More precise steering. Conventional wisdom is that a long stem helps you keep the front down when climbing in the saddle using a tiny gear. On SS we have no such gear. Going with a 50degree Syntace Megaforce2
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