Originally Posted by
Polaris OBark
A lot of bike fitting winds up being counter-intuitive, as you have probably discovered. We just assumed we would need a lot of stack and an extreme stem. She wound up being more comfortable with 30mm of spacers and a totally conventional stem.
Yeah a lot of that is your preferred riding position and back flex, too. My back isn't super flexible, and therefore I prefer a touring position. So that leads to a more extreme stem. I don't know her preferences for riding, but her stem suggests somewhere in between low and upright. That is also great. A great stem is one that gets people comfortable on their bikes and out biking.
I have a cheap one, so I'll have to make sure to check the bolts on it more often. Thanks for the head's up. If a name brand makes one with the angle I need I'd gladly pay up. But they're about 10 degrees short last I looked. The only one that was 65 degrees was a cheapo no-name brand. I love that stem, though. It's allowed me to rack up thousands of miles in the past few months when before that I was on the cusp of giving up this bike.