Originally Posted by crosscut
Many of us on the forums as soon as we see a stem flipped up, shout out to flip the stem, resulting in a negative rise for the stem.
As much as it is right for some people, it is as much wrong for others. Especially those who have just started riding and those who in the negative angle will not be able to pull enough air into the lungs to achieve the power output they could.
I flipped my stem over three weeks ago to create the negative rise. This week I flipped it back. My reasoning is this. I lost the ablility to inhale enough O2 when attacking on my rides. During the three weeks of negativity, I was dropped by group rides that I normally ride in the front, had the worst attempt at a metric century I have ever experienced, and felt like I was dying when climbing. I went to a friend who is a coach and talked to him about what in the heck was wrong. The stem being flipped changed my pedal stroke and restricted my airflow.
So until I am atleast 190 and not the 213 I am now, I am unflipped. And proud of it. BTW Won two sprints on Saturdays ride.
Reason for all this garb, is we seem ready to jump on the bangwagon for what others are doing but it may not work for all. Nothing ventured nothing gained tho. Happy riding.
Thanks for listening.
Cross
The guys that jump on the bandwagon don't know any better that's all and that comprises a large group...led by their cosmetic instincts to emulate racers mostly. Akin to the sports compact car tuner industry/craze selling dubbs (tires) with 30% aspect ratio or virtually no sidewall on wheels contributing to high unsprung weight...a good way to bend a wheel and jar the fillings loose in your teeth...but sure looks cool or at least they think it does. Most that know that say flip...say so tongue in cheek as many...perhaps the majority of riders here are running a + rise albeit a modest rise. Yeah there are some nasty negative rise really slammed bikes that are set up aggressive as well...ball busters or racer wanna be poseurs....a few legit guys that actually like that postion...lol but most are led by what they think looks cool at the expense of comfort. It is all about fit including steerer tube length, how many spacers etc. You can achieve the same fit on two different bikes by running opposite stem rise...no hard fast rule. On my latest bike...I have a +5 degree stem and flipped it and could ride OK on it but liked it better with + and not - rise. One comment...this is obscure bit of design lore if not evolution...the vast majority of road bikes sold are with a 0 to positive rise stems which gets the bars up a bit and is more comfortable to a recreational cyclist which most are. The reason for a positive rise in later threadless road bike stems is the relative steerer height of newer threadless versus old school threaded quilled stems with negative stem rise...threadless steerers tend to be shorter then their quilled Swan necked counterparts...less redundant geometry to create rise if you will with a threadless steerer with + rise stem. Some will understand what I just wrote and another subset will appreciate the aesthetic of old quilled stems which all virtually ran a negative rise that negated the steerer tube angle to give a vintage road bike its classic lines with stem parallel to top tube. To compensate, and some would say less aesthetic...rise is built into most threadless roadbike stems with the option of flipping the stem if the overall handlebar height is too high which it rarely is for most riders. The net handlebar height when comparing a threadless + rise stem to - rise threaded stem is about the same from top of steerer tube to centerline of handlebar with a quilled stem at mid point adjustment.
George