Originally Posted by
bonechilling
Not really. Nitto 123 are very deep-drop bars. That's the height as which I am comfortable and best able to pull up on the bars during a sprint. I would love to find some Nitto 125s, but they are much less common and I don't want to pay full price for them (the 123s were free).
I also use some standard Sakae road drops, and the stem is considerably lower with those. They're not as sexy though, so I don't bother taking photos with them.
I'm with you. That stem looks fine. I'd argue that bikes with a foot difference between the seat and the bars look funny (and yes I have a Rivendell, and believe it or not the bars are an inch or two beneath the seat!). Those early Lemonds are really cool, I love the graphics and even the color (not usually my style but on that bike it looks great). I've never seen a track bike from that era. Very cool.