Originally Posted by
himespau
I'd also suggest looking for a threaded-to-threadless converter. Gives you the height adjustability of a quill stem, but the greater bar choice of a threadless. Of course it weighs more then either on it's own and means you have two things to buy instead of one, but as long as you aren't a weight weenie the weight shouldn't be a big deal and the converters aren't all that pricey either (~$20 or less).
that's clearer than what I said. I had a custom touring bike with 26" wheels and regular quill road stem where the tops of the drop bars were 3" below the saddle. With my bigger gut I switched to a tall Nitto stem but the reach still wasn't right. What surprised me was how flexible the whole set-up was which wasn't what I wanted for a bike that already had a shimmy with heavy rear loads. Once I put on the adaptor and used clamp on stems it was a much more solid set-up.