Originally Posted by
Carbonfiberboy
Referring to your second point and some of the posts above, the OP didn't ask us for our opinion on how to build a nimble bike from the ground up, but rather to advise how a bike he owns now could be made more nimble. Instead of the shorter stem, replacing the current fork with one with more offset would make a larger difference. He could measure the offset on the SS and the Ultimate and see if there's any difference.
I once borrowed a friend's road bike for a somewhat technical fast descent. It was way twitchy compared with my Trek. I didn't like that at all! I much prefer a bike that just goes where it's pointed. I didn't take any measurements to try to see where the twitch came from.
fast descent...that’s a good point. I’m sort of used to twitchy bikes amongst my other ones, so I think I’ll start with a stem that’s half or a little less than half the distance of this one. I know for sure I’m not gonna miss how far this reach is, I’m just curious here to see if steering will be easier, and it seems like it will. I get that my SS is direct chain line, so the torque and “getting up to speed” will be unmatched, but now that this SS is so quick and allows to me to take tighter turns and bob and weave a bit more, I really want to get my road bike feeling similar. Thx!