Originally Posted by
Redshift96
No offense, but this is awful advice to offer to someone who is 6'3" riding a 52cm frame.
Sure, wait to plunk down stupid money on your ideal bike until you're sure you actually enjoy riding hard, but it's going to be difficult to gauge how comfortable/fun cycling will be for you when you're riding a bike that is WAY too small for you. Bad yardstick = bad measurement.
Right but a long ass stem (perhaps with 20deg rise) is going to give a better approximation of what it's like to ride than making no changes. A $30 stem is much cheaper than, say, a $1000 "entry level" bike. If your 3 contact points are the same, the handling of the bike really doesn't matter all that much in a straight line.