Originally Posted by tvphobic
I do not see the logic behind this.
It would help to know if by "your weight" Dave means "center of mass".
If so, that would be rather difficult. If not center of mass, what is meant by "weight" in this context?
You took me literally when I said “Weight” over the front hub; I try to explain things in simple terms without getting too technical. Of course to have the center of mass over the front hub the rider would have to stand on the handlebars, and you are right the center of mass is always going to be behind the front hub.
There is a shift in weight forward when a rider gets out of the saddle to climb or sprint, and perhaps what I should have said was the rider’s hands should be as near as possible over the front hub. What I aim for is to place the center of the foremost part of the handlebars over the front hub. (See the attached picture.)
This means with the hands on the drops they are slightly behind, and with the hands on the brake hoods they are slightly ahead of wheel center; a good compromise. Slight variations either way are not that important, but remember the original question in this thread was “What would be the effect of an extremely short stem.”
Rider position and comfort would take precedent over this, but if a person is trying to decide between two different sizes in a compact frame or top tube lengths; choose the one that is going to place the handlebars in the position I suggested above.