Originally Posted by cydewaze
Jess's stem was set up from the bike shop so that the bars were about 3" above the seat, maybe more. It was an awkward position that caused her to catch all sorts of wind, and it made the bike handling very twitchy.
I flipped her stem, but that made it too low, so I swapped stems with another bike. Now her bars are 1-2" lower than the seat. The result:
- Around 1mph faster average on our 57 mi loop.
- Better bike handling. She's less nervous around fast curves.
- Better climbing, because the front wheel doesn't hop around.
For her, it was a much better setup. YMMV.
Interesting - I'd forgotten about the changes in climbing I noticed. Flipping my stem made me feel more comfortable out of the saddle. Perhaps it helped me get that little bit further forward?
It made an even bigger difference on my commuter. I changed the stem out from a 130 that put the bars about level with the saddle, to a 100 flipped that put the bars about 2 inches below the saddle. It's made a huge difference. Gets me out of the wind a bit more, has made the bike much more manageable, and I'm far more comfortable especially out of the saddle. Part of this is due to the shorter stem, but also due to being lower (reach stayed about the same).
Depends on the rider and the bike/stem combo.