|   What stem rise for my trail bike? | Mountain Cycle Shawn
Sep 17, 2003 9:27 PM | | The stem I have now is 90mm x 0 degrees. The length feels comfortable to me but when I am going around fast corners or when going downhill I get the feeling the front wheel is going to quickly fold under me. It hasn't happened yet but I clip out of my inside pedal more then I should just in case. Should I go with a 90mm x 10 degree stem? |
| re: What stem rise for my trail bike? | Nightrider
Sep 17, 2003 11:44 PM | | You might want to try a 100mm stem with a 5 degree rise to eradicate that sketchy feely you described, and fine tune your stem height with spacers. As far as buying a (90mm x 10 degree) new stem save your money and play with spacers for more height.
HAPPY TRAILS!! |
| Ummm...Shawn, contrary to what the previous poster.... | Squash
Sep 18, 2003 3:36 AM | | Recommends don't try the spacers! You have obviously cut the steerer tube on your fork to fit what you have on there now. It appears that you have one spacer in there already and that your set up fits together properly. Start trying to put spacers in there and you'll have problems! You might get another 2mm spacer in there, but anything more than that and it looks like you have your stem sitting to high to clamp the steerer tube properly/safely. Sounds like your best option is to try a couple of stems with different rises in 100 to 90mm range with 5 to 10 degrees of rise. You may want to hit your LBS and see if they have some old pull off stems sitting around that you can try and see what will work. You will possibly have to and some spacers to your set up, but only because Titech stems have a very tall clamp height and you'll have to fine tune the fit of a new stem to your steerer tube. I would recommend trying a 90mm 5 dg first. If that doesn't work then try a 90/10dg and so on. And don't be affraid to slap a DH stem on there and try that. But if you can't find friends or an LBS that will let you try various size stems then I'd say by a cheap 90/10dg first and try it out for a couple of rides. If that works for you then buy a higher end stem if that's what you want. But from the look of your set up you DON'T have enough steerer tube there to accomplish what you are looking or need to do. At least not safely.
Good Dirt |
| I went for 25*105 | pimpbot
Sep 18, 2003 9:33 AM | | I have a k2 Razorback, which is more of a race bike, not a big travel DH bike like you got.
I had a 8 degree 90mm stem, but the 5 inches of drop between my seat and bars was just too much. I went for broke and got a Titec 25 degree 105mm DH stem and it made all the difference in the world, plus it's super stiff, way stiffer than my RacceFace protoge stem. The difference between 0 and 10 degree rise will boost your bars less than an inch. That will help, but 25 degrese will get you two inches of rise
check it out for youself on your bike. The downside of raising yoru bars is that your front end will wander more on steep climbs and switchbacks.
Titec has their downhill stems on sale for $20 from their site. They'll prolly pop you $6 for freight. that's cheap enough to make your best guess and check it out. If it sucks buy another one. THey are nice stems too.
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| clarify "quickly fold under me," and I'll help... | gonzostrike
Sep 18, 2003 12:44 PM | | ...because stem length affects how your front wheel is weighted.
if by "fold under me" you felt that your hands were too far ahead of the wheel, obviously you need to get your hands closer in and possibly lower... go from 100mm long to 60-75mm.
if by "fold under me" you felt that the wheel was way out ahead of your hands and felt floppy or hard to keep pointed, then your hands need to go out and perhaps a bit higher... go to 120mm.
on my bikes I prefer stems of no longer than 90mm. I have a 70mm stem on my burly hardtail, and a 90mm stem on my SS. |
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