Originally Posted by DasProfezzional
I opine that, in general, bikes sold for racing purposes (road or mountain,) are sold with stems that are far too long. In fact, as an employeeeee of a bike shop, I would much prefer it that bikes were sold without stems, and that it be up to the shop and the customer to find the right length. Of course, this is essentially impossible, but still, I think most riders would be happier with a different stem.
Furthermore, it is not so much the size of a rider, but his desires. Which kind of rhymes. His priorities. His hopes, dreams, and wishes. If our Scott-framed friend above were to desire a ride with a touch less whip, he could shorten his stem by 20, 30, or, from the looks of it, even 40 millimeters, and would thereby be blessed with better tracking, at the expense of a bit of the bike's agility. If he were to put, say, a 50mm downhill stem on the bike, it would be a poor fit no doubt, but reducing the length by a couple of centimeters would only change his riding position, likely for the better, but would give his venerable carbon beast a little more trail-worthiness.
I am also a fan of riser bars, but perhaps they have no place on that bike.
Remember? Note the 50mm downhill stem/poor fit part. I don't race by ze way, and if you can't take knowledge dropped by some punk 17 year-old SOB, ask Mountain Bike Action (the magazine.) They ran an article about this very subject not one month past by.
As for the sketch-city, while I am not John Edward (of
Crossing Over fame,) I can see that, if Mr. W has neither orangutan arms nor Jedi reflexes, that bike will feel stretched out and whippy. If it's dedicated to XC, with no thought of anything even a little more technical, then hey, Mr. W might like the ride just fine. But I lean very favorably towards the fit provided by a shorter stem (I dropped from 110mm to 90mm on my XtC, removed the spacers, and added riser bars,) and even if Mr. W (or any other hypothetical rider) does not harbor that tendency in general, he still may appreciate a couple of centimeters dropped from the stem of the bike in question.
...more bikes?
Edit:
Originally Posted by mtnbiker66
They would if I had it.
Same.