I was just spending some time re-fitting my old road bikes with traditional quill stems. So the pics are very out of date. Yes, if I use a stem adapter and use a threadless stem flipped up, then I can have my bars nearly level with the saddle. But since my quill stems are fairly short, I was thinking they would work since the bars would be lower, but closer.

I also wonder if it could be something with my geometry. I have pretty long legs, so I jack my saddle up pretty high. But on the Medici frame, my standover clearance is pretty much zero. My long legs make my torso short, but I also have pretty long arms.

I'm hoping the bike feels OK when I go out and ride it like this. I haven't ridden either of my old frames in a while.