Originally Posted by
Kontact
The GCN tests changed only the stems, so they were testing short stems on bikes with unnaturally short reach. If they had tested short stems on larger frames they would likely have different results.
Rephrasing what I already wrote.
People used to ride Scott Drop-Ins, which grossly decreased reach and leverage. Were those bikes notoriously twitchy?
That's an interesting example. I've watched videos and looked at photos of cyclists who had those trendy Scott Drop-In bars and they rarely actually used that extended part of the bar. Presumably a clever solution to a non-existent problem. The Scott extension might have been useful for a few minutes at a time while grinding uphill into a stiff headwind.
Apparently not useful enough to catch on. Especially among weight conscious pros trying to eliminate every superfluous gram.