Originally Posted by
degan
Is this too much stem? The stem it had on it was garbage and this was the only 25.4 stem I had. Its a 135! Riding the hoods, the hands would be right at or maybe just past the front hub. I'm thinking of building it up just to see what the ride characteristics are like.
Only you will know. I have matched the distance from the nose of the saddle to my handlebars on all of my bikes: road, touring, and drop bar conversion. With the longish TT on most MTBs, I have chosen carefully. Thats a LONG stem in your picture for sure. I would not let the stem dictate the geometry of your build. Instead, base It on what works best for you, which might be this stem, or it could be another one.
I have seen dramatically different top tube lengths in the same brand and era MTBs, for the same ST length. At least 2 inches of variation, which is 50mm.