Mountain Biking - Selecting a Stem

I have an entry level bike that I ride mainly on S. California fire roads and singletrack. The stock stem that came with it seems to have a pretty sharp angle and even with the saddle correctly adjusted it's actually above the saddle. I'd like to get a stem that's going to place my handle bars in a position that will not have me upright the entire ride and will handle ok going downhill (ie. not super long). Can anyone recommend a particular stem or share the best method to go about selecting a stem? I'm including pictures (for those of you that like to make snarky comments about other's bikes). Thanks.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3110/2539139369_78f1bd7f98.jpg?v=0

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2034/2539961140_e118bc94e5.jpg?v=0

I have an entry level bike that I ride mainly on S. California fire roads and singletrack. The stock stem that came with it seems to have a pretty sharp angle and even with the saddle correctly adjusted it's actually above the saddle. I'd like to get a stem that's going to place my handle bars in a position that will not have me upright the entire ride and will handle ok going downhill (ie. not super long). Can anyone recommend a particular stem or share the best method to go about selecting a stem? I'm including pictures (for those of you that like to make snarky comments about other's bikes). Thanks.


Depending on your experience with bikes (or lack thereof), the best way may simply be to get to a lbs and have someone make these fit-related adjustments.

Why don't you try flipping it first and see if that gets you where you want to be? Could be a simple fix.

I figured as much about the LBS. However, I'm relatively comfortable working on my bike and just hoped there might be some guiding rule so that I could do it myself and save a bit of money. Thanks, I'll check and see what they have to say.

Ok, will try.

Don't flip the stem on a mtb, it's ok to do it on roadbikes. You're going to screw up your body positioning on the bike even more due to the suspension fork. There's a ton of spacers on the steerer tube right there, you can probably get your lbs to take some steerer tube off, put a new star fangled nut in the steerer which will allow you to use less headset spacers, which means the stem will be lower. If you go that route, I'd say inch, maybe inch and a half at most. If you are still too upright, get a shorter stem.

Wow. Flipping that stem would be a little nutty imho. It would pose quite a danger to one's junk as well:eek: