adjustable stem, any thoughts?
07-06-08, 12:30 PM
#1
Wilma!!
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adjustable stem, any thoughts?
Adjustable stem, good or bad? Talk amongst yourselves.
(My 08 Bianchi Brava came with one and I just had it switched out)
(My 08 Bianchi Brava came with one and I just had it switched out)
07-06-08, 01:19 PM
#3
Senior Member
It actually might be good for a beginner for the 1st couple of years. As you get more fit and more limber from stretching and conditioning, you'll end up riding with a lower upper-body and more bent elbows. This also requires a longer stem with lower rise. So you can adjust it incrementally. Then finally swap it out for a more lightweight and stiffer fixed stem.
07-06-08, 01:56 PM
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It actually might be good for a beginner for the 1st couple of years. As you get more fit and more limber from stretching and conditioning, you'll end up riding with a lower upper-body and more bent elbows. This also requires a longer stem with lower rise. So you can adjust it incrementally. Then finally swap it out for a more lightweight and stiffer fixed stem.
07-06-08, 03:31 PM
#5
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Adjustable stems are only used to find a good position. Then you chuck it and get a real stem. The adjustables almost always
a) develops play
b) creaks
with use. Not to mention they are unsafe in the hands of people who don't maintain their bikes.
a) develops play
b) creaks
with use. Not to mention they are unsafe in the hands of people who don't maintain their bikes.
07-06-08, 05:01 PM
#6
Bike ≠ Car ≠ Ped.
I got a bike with a Ritchey adjustable stem, which had to be disassembled to make an adjustment.
Great for fiddling with rise, but I cranked it skyward to lessen the reach (although it only occurred to me NOW to account for the huge rise angle by dropping it below the spacers already on the steerer). Sturdy as hell, too, nothing like the adjustable stem on a neighbor's bike.
I've replaced it with another, shorter Ritchey stem that the shop had laying around. I'll hang onto the adjustable one, though, since I could see me riding with my dad when my parents visit later this summer and he's a bit taller than me.
Great for fiddling with rise, but I cranked it skyward to lessen the reach (although it only occurred to me NOW to account for the huge rise angle by dropping it below the spacers already on the steerer). Sturdy as hell, too, nothing like the adjustable stem on a neighbor's bike.
I've replaced it with another, shorter Ritchey stem that the shop had laying around. I'll hang onto the adjustable one, though, since I could see me riding with my dad when my parents visit later this summer and he's a bit taller than me.
