Originally Posted by
Redbullet
After 9 months of riding with a 10 cm stem (decreased from the stock 11), I want to increase the comfort. It looks that my available time for training will reduce, thus, I can not face the stretched ("race") position anymore (although in the near past I was able to make 2 rides of 150 km with that configuration).
I was wondering whether a further reduction of 2 cm (stem lenght going down from 10 to 8 cm) will make a 59 size bike to look strange, or is it still acceptable?
If you don't want to swap the stem, you could swap handlebars to a 'short and shallow' style and get the same decrease in reach, at least at the hoods and drops. I find it funny that these bars are popular yet short stems are frowned upon. Both affect steering inputs from the most common hand positions yet it is only the mention of short stems that brings out comments about 'awful handling'.
If my kid can handle a 43mm stem on his bike, an adult should be able to handle an 80mm stem.