Originally Posted by
urbanknight
Whatever is comfortable is best for you, but it sounds like a 58 would have been your "ideal" size. Stems of different lengths handle differently, so if you like the 90 better than 140, so be it. I like 110 to 120 myself, and am about to try a 100 on my ride since I have been stretched out a little too much with this large frame.
Yeah, a 58 (or 59 if they made one) would've likely fit better than the 60 if both were stock. The shop actually didn't have a CAAD8 in 58, so sometimes I still think I should've insisted on getting one ordered or switching to another bike (they had a Synapse in my size)... but, the way I've got it now, the 60 definitely feels better than the modified 56 would have.
I switched to the 90 stem when I noticed that I was more comfortable riding with my hands closer to the top bend of the bars rather than at the hoods; making the switch brought the brifters right to my hands. I got another bike recently that, between test rides, also got the stem swapped for a shorter version, and on both bikes, I found that I preferred the handling with the shorter stems. The 60 with the short stem even felt as nimble to me as the 56 with the
stock stem, never mind the pig-like handling I'd get from a 140.