AndyK 

Not picking on his setup, but the saddle to drop looks extreme to me!

AndyK 

Makes sense, if you are comfy with a very low saddle to bar drop. Otherwise, you could have bought the next size lower.

Hida Yanra

Years of adaptation come in handy.

I'm 5'10", ride a 54 w/ 120mm -17d stem, slammed, and 150mm drop bars. I ride in the drops for long periods of time (like cdr, when fatigued, I go to the drops), and in great comfort. Yes, this is physiotherapist approved - she loves my position and has been the one to recommend going progressively lower over the last few years.

The aero gains are not inconsequential.

Hida Yanra

Yep - spot on.

Incorrect
FSA makes several.
Energy New Ergo (a GREAT bend, 150mm drop, on all my road bikes)
Energy Traditional (a traditional round bend, 145mm drop, currently on my track bike)

Cleave

Hi,

No love for Gerard Vroomen's blog entry?

Neil Browne has some comments on slammed stems in his most recent blog entry (https://neilbrowne.com/2011/12/vintag...nce-youtubing/)

"One other positioning characteristic of the time that I noticed was the stem height. The stems on these late 80s bikes are actually raised with several inches of the quill exposed. This is in direct contrast to today’s “pro” style of slamming the stem as low as possible. The excellent blog by Gerard Vroomen also commented on the trend of lower bar heights and in particular pointed out Fabian Cancellara’s sprint with his hands on the hoods. As I’ve watched modern races, the riders are on the hoods – not the drops – as they solo away. Is it because they can’t comfortably reach the drops? The teachable moment here is that road bike handlebars are designed with a drop for a reason – to have another position for your hands. Don’t forget it."

I've made the same observation as Neil watching pro racers in breakaway attempts. Often, during their initial attack, they are on the hoods instead of in the drops. Gerard's observation on Cancellara's hand position during the world championship sprint is also quite interesting.

I admit that slammed stems have a certain aesthetic that appeals to me. Three of my bikes have slammed stems:





My race rig does not have a slammed stem:



Which leads to my point that stem height is determined by your body mechanics and physiology. You may be able to adapt to a degree, but there is an optimal seat-to-bar drop that is specific to you and frame geometry determines whether or not you need spacers under the stem.

To make my point further, I used to have a 5 mm spacer under the stem on my Serotta. Last year I switched from the old delta-style Look pedals to Look Kéo pedals. The pedal change necessitated a 6 mm lower saddle so to maintain my saddle-to-bar drop, I removed the spacer.

If I was going to build a bike just for display purposes, I would probably slam the stem. However, I build my bikes to ride so I put as many spacers under the stem as necessary to get the handlebars where I need them.

chaulky61

Cleave, I have a stupid question (and sorry about the thread jack). You have removed the tear drop decals on your wheels, but have kept the little warning sticker by the valve stem. Just curious as to why? I saw another photo of some Reynold's and the owner completely debadged them, but kept the little warning stickers as well. Is it a mattress\tag thing? Just curious. (Very nice bike by the way)

Inertianinja

Don't forget the 3T Rotundo Pro

MrTuner1970

Sigh, for me too.

Just today I unslammed my stem...after finally working on core to the point that the lower back could handle it. (Tried three times previously and always went back.) The back was doing fine, but my breathing just felt cramped compared to my other bike with less saddle-to-bar drop. And my shoulders are giving me problems as well.

So I went from 4+ inches of drop to just under 3 inches. The ride today felt a bunch better. Breathing was definitely better, which should help with overall engine performance. I have longer legs than torso, but with longer arms.

Surely do wish the slammed stem would work for me, 'cause it was looking good. And anybody that knows anything about cycling knows that looks are where it's at.

mazdaspeed

Good thing you left the steerer tube intact But yeah, the slammed stems seem to either be people that do it for looks at the expense of performance or people that planned ahead and bought a very specific frame size.

MrTuner1970

Actually, in my ignorance, I told my LBS to cut the steerer tube short. ('Cause you know in my studly pride I thought, "I can get used to it.")

So now I have one 10mm spacer under the stem. If I had it to do over, I would have left more steerer. You know why...so I could achieve the exact same handlebar position, but have a slammed stem. Oooh, baby, I'd be so much more awesomer then.

But while riding today, my buddy said I'm horizontal to the ground when in the drops. And it's so much more comfortable now in the drops. I'll be spending more time there than before, so I don't see a problem. Except for looks, of course.

Cleave

I took off the teardrop stickers because some of them were starting to peel off on their own. Being a long-time motorsports fan, I don't mind all the decals on most bikes that make them look like traveling billboards. I suppose if my frame didn't have decals all over it, I might "de-badge" the wheels. My disc never had the Zipp stickers on it so I left it alone. The Campagnolo sticker on my chain stay covers one of the Incycle decals because this frame is actually team frame for a different team than mine and I wanted to minimize the visibility of their sponsor decals (the price was right).

VA_Esquire

you have a better photo of this setup? It intrigues me.

carpediemracing 

Picture came from blog post here. If you look at the end of Jan and beginning of Feb 2011 you'll see related posts.

I realized I don't have a lot of pictures of the bike. I posted my thoughts on the design of it here and here.

Unusual angle:


Stripped down (still in the CamelBak phase, which was the original intent):


Setup as it is now, albeit a bit cleaner than in this picture. I'm using water bottles now:

Biscayne05

that thread is as obnoxious as it can get in a male dominanted sport. it's funnier when people take the suggestions and follow the other tools to make their bikes look better.

im just waiting for the "does my butt look good in my new lycras?" thread.

roadiejorge 

Slam the stem if you know your fit, doing it just for looks might lead to some discomfort.

giantcfr1

Not doubting you, but I'm having trouble visualizing how. When I had no spacer on top (I do now though) the steerer tube was cut a few mm below the stem so it wouldn't make contact with the top cap when tightened. What am I missing here?

AndyK 

This is correct. You need space between the steerer tube top, and stem top, so the stem cap can pull up on the steerer and properly tension the bearings, etc. If you use a different stem with lower stack height, you may need a small spacer on TOP of the stem, to provide that gap between steerer and top cap.

Darth_Firebolt

also, you want the stem to squeeze on steerer tube, not air. the spacer on top of the stem means you can have 100% contact between stem and steerer tube, instead of the tube stopping 75% of the way through the stem. this is especially true for carbon steerers.

sleepy

This is a great read.

I'm wondering though, why not just flip the stem for positive rise and slam it? Or is it not practical to cut so much steerer tube? Is there some leeway involved with this?

DXchulo

You might hear some excuses, but most people will avoid the positive rise stem because it looks Fredly.

kensuf

Hah hah. I had the same frame, but oem'ed from another vendor, and you're not even close.

rpeterson

I had a similar setup as a TT bike, but my front end was low enough that it interfered with the front brake. My TT bike now has 650s so I can still have a front brake.

carpediemracing 

Personally I'd prefer to go this method, short steerer, more upright stem. I tried to figure out a setup where I could get a taller setup if something happened to me (back blows out, I gain weight, etc). With my setup I have a bit of built in potential height (by using 80, 90, and taller angle stems). As it is the bike is the lowest possible, i.e. shortest steerer tube with -17/73 stem.

I initially wanted to have the setup be in the middle of the range, i.e. same bar position using an 80 deg stem. This way I could experiment with raising/lowering the bar. When I learned I couldn't do that I decided that I'd just leave it where it was.

(I determined my saddle position in a similar way. Get current setup, make it the "center" of all adjustments - this means the rails needed to be centered on the post. Since I used to slam my saddle all the way forward, I asked for a seat tube angle that would put the saddle, in my favored position, in the middle of the rails. It ended up 75.5 deg as built, the builder telling me the 76 I was requesting was a bit much.)

chaulky61

Thanks! As noted, I was just curious.

chaulky61

While I do visit that thread and enjoy looking at some of the bikes, you are correct in that many of the comments are inane. I think the assumption is that a slamed stem looks more "pro". In fact, when I was looking at the bikes in last year's Tour I was surprised at how many of the riders ran spacers below the stem.