Originally Posted by
FastJake
The rest of my body would actually prefer to be further forward. I think my arms must be short because reach to the bars is often an issue for me. I have to put short stems on most of my bikes. But my legs require the setback.
I tend to like a short-ish reach too. I use short reach bars and a 90 - 100 mm stem on 54.5 cm top tube bikes, depending on the seat tube angle.
After lots of careful measurements with a plumb bob I figured out that the seat tube angle on my new bike was significantly steeper, putting the saddle further forward even though it appeared to be in the same position. Moving it back fixed the problem.
Yea, one of the handiest "duh" things I learned, probably on this or another forum, was how the STA affects saddle position and reach to the bars. Thus the adage: adjust your saddle position first then the reach.