Road Cycling - Disappearing axel stem length method

I have a new bike. It feels too long, but I haven't gotten completely used to it yet.

I'm trying the old tried and true "disappearing axel" technique to check stem length. Right now the front axel pretty much disappears when I'm riding the brake hoods and appears in front of the handlebar when I'm in the drops.

This would indicate my stem length could be even longer than its stock 10cm, yet I feel like I'm reaching already. If anything, I feel like shortening the stem by a couple of cm. Maybe I should ride the bike awhile longer and let my body adjust.

I went through the monkeywrench and colorado cyclist frame sizing exercises and came out OK. Ideally I would probably ride a 57cm frame. The choices for the bike I bought were 56 and 58, and I bought the 58. I'm not a big fan of high seat and low bars. I'm a tourist at heart riding a racing bike for fitness.

How awful is it to shorten stem length. I hear stories of "twitchy steering" an so forth. Will I twitch into a ditch or be ostracized from club rides if I change to an 8 or 9 cm stem?

condor

My feeling is that steering gets more "twitchy" as the bars move away from the fork (meaning, with a longer stem). Can you raise your stem a bit and try it like that for a while, or is it already at/near its max height?

It's a threadless stem, so I can't raise the height. The stem height is OK.

Actually I'm getting sort of reconciled to the setup. I'm going to ride it awhile and see if I don't get acclimated.

The dissapearning axle trick is so much guff. It may happen to be true for certain sized riders on certain styles of bike, but there is no sound reason for it to be true.
You can change your stem. I find that on a normal frame with a 56cm top tube, an 8cm stem works fine for me, even though they are usually sold with 10cm.
My experience is that longer stems increase stability and shorter ones decrease it, but moving from 10 to 8 is not a huge difference.

Hmm. I might consider a shorter stem. My hands got numb on my ride today. Don't know if that indicates I'm reaching too far, putting too much weight on them.

condor

If your hands go numb, check your saddle angle too. I've had lots of customers complaining about hand numbness, and it's because their saddle is nose-down and tries to slide them toward the handlebar, forcing them to push back.

The disappearing axel is a place to start and then see if the setup feels right. It's possible to have the disappearing axel and still have the wrong length srem,depent on alot of other variables.I once built a bike and stuck a 9 cm stem on it cause it was a nice one and was what was in the parts box.The axel did the disappearing act due to some other varibles that got factored in , but the bike was a troture chamber. It really need a 130 and that's what it has now and the axel still disappears.