Originally Posted by
hsuehhwa
From 10 to 8 cm, the handling of the bike will be a lot more sensitive. The center of gravity also changes. Take some time to get used to. I probably wouldn't do switchback descent immediately after the switch.
A good rider will be unaffected. In fact, since many geometric aspects of any bicycle affect handling as much or more than stem length from wheelbase to trail, a short stem on a longer wheelbase bike may quicken the handling of a bike to be construed as a positive.