Touring - Trek 520: Raising the Bar

I am in a bit of a dilemna. I bought a 23" Trek 520, almost three months ago, and have swapped the stock stem for one with a little more rise--it's still around an 1 1/2 inches too short for me. My elbows only have a very slight bend, almost fully extended. I spoke to my LBS, and was told that Trek now pre-cuts all of its forks for market. What do you think of the after market extensions? They add around 1 1/2" to 2" inches to the rise. Are they any less stable than a longer fork with spacers? Any experience with these? Thanks for the tips to come.

Urbanmonk

I am in a bit of a dilemna. I bought a 23" Trek 520, almost three months ago, and have swapped the stock stem for one with a little more rise--it's still around an 1 1/2 inches too short for me. My elbows only have a very slight bend, almost fully extended. I spoke to my LBS, and was told that Trek now pre-cuts all of its forks for market. What do you think of the after market extensions? They add around 1 1/2" to 2" inches to the rise. Are they any less stable than a longer fork with spacers? Any experience with these? Thanks for the tips to come.

Urbanmonk

There's no riser stem you can use that will give you the right bar height? Even from mountain bike stems? Unless your bicycle is substantially undersized for you throughout, you should be able to find a stem that will fit you.

You should try one of those adjustable stems like on most of the hybred bikes.

This will get you up and it's VERY stable... my wife uses the same one...

http://aebike.com/site/page.cfm?PageID=30&SKU=SM1977

And this will take up even a tad more... again my wife uses it as well in tandem with the above item and BOTH are excellent together

http://aebike.com/site/page.cfm?PageID=30&SKU=SM4567

Great prices on both too. Take it higher!

This will get you up and it's VERY stable... my wife uses the same one...

http://aebike.com/site/page.cfm?PageID=30&SKU=SM1977

And this will take up even a tad more... again my wife uses it as well in tandem with the above item and BOTH are excellent together

http://aebike.com/site/page.cfm?PageID=30&SKU=SM4567

Great prices on both too. Take it higher!

The extension that Istanbul_Tea recommends works well. I used one to convert my mountain bike for road use and it did the job perfectly, and cheap too.

I also use the stem raiser linked to by Istanbul_Tea on my Novara Safari and have been pleased with it. It really helps, but I wish now I'd bought the next size up in the frame :(

Which one would you try first? The stem extender or the 130 degree? I want to try one first.

Urbanmonk

Since you already have a stem-according to your first post in this thread at least-with some rise to it...

get the Extender first.