Originally Posted by
bruce19
This is one of the things I liked about Steve. I told him that although I have always felt that my Masi wasn't the "perfect" frame size for me I wanted to see if I could make it work well for me because it was a 60th birthday present from my gf. That was almost 8 yrs ago and I got a rush just looking at it then and I still do. FWIW it is pretty comfortable as is but I need to make it "right." Steve said we had to try to make it work because it was really important as a moment in our relationship and not just a bike. I was impressed that he was sensitive to that.
If it's small for you I've found that you give up some handling when you go to a longer reach stem....At least out of the saddle on hills. Had that problem on my old Italvega that was too short for me.
I've found my own stem creeping up in height as well, as I got older myself, and I have no neck injuries. Had to go to a taller Nitto Technomic stem on both my bikes which fit me but a little borderline on the small side.