Raising Stem
 

I have an '09 Jamis Coda Sport and I need to raise the stem up more. Right now I have 3" of drop and it's causing me neck pain. It comes with a 105mm NVO adjustable stem. What's the easiest way to do this and not screw up the geometry?

Flip the stem over, get a stem with a greater angle, get a larger frame bike.

that stem does not look adjustable. You could buy a "stem riser" that would give you a few inches more height or another stem that angles upward.

Stem riser is probably the cheapest way to go. Or get an adjustable stem

With your existing parts, it's already as high as it will go. You could adjust it to be lower, but not higher.

For what it's worth--

Jenson has a Kalloy adjustable stem for $20 with free shipping through Monday:
http://www.jensonusa.com/store/produ...Rise+Stem.aspx

It's ok as adjustables go, but they all suck, they tend to creak, and are very heavy because the mechanics that make it adjustable are made of steel.

I have one that I will probably keep on my errand bike. For my road bike I just ordered one of these:

http://www.niagaracycle.com/product_...ucts_id=420873 about $25 shipped.

I also have this: http://www.niagaracycle.com/product_...ucts_id=420632 It does the job but is heavy--but if your fork steerer has been chopped off, you don't have a lot of choice.

If ordering over the net, make sure you pay close attention to your handlebar clamp diameter--note that there is a difference between 25.4 and 26, for example.

This is a rather unusual threadless stem setup. There is what is essentially a sleeve on the outside of the steerer tube that the stem can be adjusted up and down on, without juggling spacers. The sleeve itself is basically a large spacer. The stem and sleeve are made to work together; if you look closely you can see a raised ridge on the sleeve and a channel for the ridge on the stem (facing the front). It works pretty well for easy height adjustment. But again, the OP's stem is already at the highest point on the sleeve.

But underneath the stem and the notched sleeve lies an ordinary threadless steerer. You should be able to remove the stem and sleeve, buy an end cap and the spacers you need, plus the riser stem (with 1.125" steerer clamp) of your choice.

But underneath the stem and the notched sleeve lies an ordinary threadless steerer. You should be able to remove the stem and sleeve, buy an end cap and the spacers you need, plus the riser stem (with 1.125" steerer clamp) of your choice.

If you have that many spacers and the stem is flipped and you still have 3" of drop, how much seat post is exposed? It seems like you are trying to make a too small frame work for you.

Yes, of course you can replace the NVO setup with something else. I was just explaining to the other poster how the NVO system works.

My thoughts exactly. I know that's just a shot of one small part of the bike, but that many spacers and still having 3" of drop...something seems a bit...off.

+1

Likely the frame is too small. Can you post a pic of the whole bike setup?

Hold everything, folks. Raising the stem changes the angle of your arms to your body but otherwise changes very little unless you make a big change. A 1" rise brings it .3 inches closer to the saddle. You need to determine if the distance from saddle to bars is correct, which means first setting saddle fore-aft position correct then going to a different stem length if necessary.

As pointed out above a too-small bike is very possibly the problem. In that case a higher stem will have you putting a lot of pressure on the saddle and you will be back asking how to solve that problem. If you can't post a pic then tell us your inseam (jeans length) and distance from crank axle center to top of seat post

Here's a picture, I have been raising the seat up to eliminate knee pain. The drop is just an estimate but I have a 31.5" cycling inseam and the frame is 19.5". I'm only 5'9" so I didn't think a 21.5" frame made sense. I've thought some sort of stem raiser + some 1.5" riser bars that I could rotate to tweak seat-to-bar length would do the trick.

Without knowing your specific measurements, everything about that picture screams "too small". Typically, you only see that much seatpost showing on the most aggressively sloped MTB frames. I don't think I've even seen the most "extreme" of pro racer setups with so much seatpost.

Compare the amount of extenstion you have on everything with the saddle to handlebar reach, and the whole thing is out of proportion. Unless you have a VERY oddly proportioned body, or a strange medical issue, someone foisted a frame on you that is far too small.

If you have medical issues that require a short ETT and upright geometry, you may be best served by looking into some form of cruiser.

Holy smokes your saddle is high!

I printed a picture and measured, figured out the scale of the picture vs. real life (based on the 19.5" seatube you mentioned) and used the ratio to estimate saddle height...

According to my rough calculations, your saddle height is over 33 inches from the bottom bracket. To put this in perspective, an old formula for estimating saddle height is 0.883 X inseam... which for you would be 27.8" (although I don't have much faith in this formula, it gives a decent rough estimate), so your saddle might be five inches too high! I am willing to bet that you are reaching waaay down with your feet when you pedal, or that your hips rock tremendously... both of which are generally considered bad form.

Perhaps your knee pain was not a result of low saddle height? Have you ever been properly fitted by an experienced shop? Otr at least ask them to evaluate your fit on the bike. You are so far out of whack now that I hesitate to give advice because I can't even imagine how you ride that thing how it is now.

By looking at that picture my first instinct says that the frame is WAY too small for the rider, having that many spacers with that much drop.

Forget about height. The measurements that count are inseam relative to seat tube length and trunk measurement relative to top tube length. Arm length/stem length are important too.

Judging by your inseam, that frame is roughly 4cm too small for you. 19.5" is roughly 49.5cm, 21.5" is 54.6cm. Assuming an "average" inseam to torso measurement, I think the 21.5 inch frame would be a much better fit for you. I have an inseam just under 30" and my frame size is 20"/51cm center to top.

Are you sure that cycling inseam is correct? How are you measuring it? That still looks like quite a lot of exposed seatpost for that size frame, but it would be easier to judge if the camera angle in the photo were straight on. The previous poster mentioned the possibility of the saddle being too high, which is certainly possible.

Even if 31.5" is his pants size and not a pbh cycling inseam, my calculations (if you trust my logic and methodology) indicate that the seatpost is waaaay to far out... the disatnce between the pedals at the bottom of stroke and the top of the seat is close to 40 inches!!!

I agree. It looks like it's three or four inches too high. I wonder if the OP measured his inseam such as one would for trousers (to the ball of the ankle) rather than to the floor. That would account for a few inches. At any rate, the frame is too small for the rider.

My pant inseam is 30", the pbh is 31.5-32" using the book against the wall method. My seat was actually 31.5" from the center of the BB. Believe it or not I didn't have to rock my hips. I dropped the seat down to 29" and took this picture. Does the angle at full extension look right?

Well, you have the heel a little elevated, but apart from that it looks about OK. With the sole of your foot level you're probably darn close to the amount of extension I'm running.

But your bars sure are much closer to your knees than mine are.

I'm adding my voice to those who say that your frame is too small.

The picture is worth a thousand words. That bike is too small for you.

You'd have to account for seatpost suspension sag when measuring the BB to seat top dimension, so it gets tricky there.

I'd say your optimal size frame would be around 54cm, but that's just about exactly between this size and the next one up. There is a chance the next one up would be right for you, I know I fit some 56cm frames well, but my inseam is 32.5.

I like the riser bar idea at this point. This one's almost 2" rise and only $30. Do a lot of stretching and about 200 twisting crunches a day and a 1" bar drop will seem like nothing before long.

EDIT: Unless you JUST bought this bike, then I'd try to trade it in for something bigger.

I'd guess that your suspension seatpost is extended beyond the minimum insertion line. I agree with the others, the bike is too small. I sell that model at my shop, and I will say that if that is a 19.5" frame, and you're 5'9" with a 31.5" pbh inseam, I would expect that size to be closer to a good fit than it is. Are you sure it's not a 17" frame? I'm 5'8" with a 31.5" pbh inseam, and if I were to buy one of those bikes for myself, the 19.5" size in the Coda fits me best. The Coda's do tend to run a bit "small," as do most hybrids, when compared to, say, a mountain bike of the same frame size. I ride a 17" mountain bike frame, but something close to a 19" hybrid would be necessary for me if I were to buy one. For you, based on your pics and assuming your bike is indeed a 19.5," you need the next size up.