I discovered a way to do it on the cheap: Find an SR stem that went with the long SunTour stem shifters. They are about the same length as the Technomic Deluxe, maybe a bit longer. I got mine for $2 at Recycled Cycles in Seattle. There are lots out there.

I recently came across one of those SR stems, too. Just as long as the Technomic and fairly short reach, which is also what I needed. Good stuff!

Neal

Kommissar, what's the length of the extension (the horizontal part) of that Tech Deluxe? If you don't find a trader so far, I want to talk.

Road Fan

Try tilting your saddle forward so the flat nose is level and the rear of the saddle ramps up. That always does the trick for me.

Rotating your hips takes some of the bend out of your back and moves more weight to your sit bones instead of your giblits.

Actually no. The deluxe model is shorter measuring 190. The standard Technomic is 225. The deluxe model is heat treated,has some kind of anodizing and reads Nitto. The longer and non deluxe is bare aluminum and read Nitto. I have both. Get the plain, non anodized that says "Technomic." As a bonus, you can polish the plain Technomic.

Richard

100mm

I agree it would do as you describe but I find it also causes me to slide forward on the saddle. Do you not have that problem with it positioned like that?

Arr Arrr Arr, that's my size!

Please consider me a customer!!!

How long a Technomic extension do you need? I have one I will not use, either a 12 cm or 13 cm, gotta look tonight.

Road Fan

I found that finding the proper tilt on a Brooks Pro is a major challenge, compared to an Alias. The only seatposts I've found that let me get fine enough adjustment are Campy 2-bolt and Thomsons. Not a cheap solution!

You could also be sliding forward because your knees want to be more forward, and of course the rear end must follow. I can't explain it any better, but I think there's a position where your legs are most efficient, and one's body tends to move to that position, which may or may not be KOPS. I've been trying to place my saddle so that it supports me in that position, and found a lot more comfort. My fitter agrees with my theory, FWIW.

Anyway, food for thought!

I'm going to order a standard Technomic in 70-80mm size. 100mm is definately too long for this Panasonic touring bike/Brooks combination. Once it arrives the existing Technomic Deluxe will go on the market. I'll PM you when it's available. I don't have another stem at the moment so it has to stay in place until I get the new one.

Ok, Kommissar! I just checked the Stem Room, and I thought I had a Technomic, but can't find it. I think the cat took it.

Well you are using a saddle that is designed for an upright riding position with dropped bars so I would expect it to be weird. It is designed to rest your buttocks on whereas a saddle for the dropped position is design to rest your pelvis on. I would think the nose is too wide for comfort.

There is an old rule of thumb that says if you slide forward on the saddle it is too high, and if you slide back it is too low. That kind of automatically adjusts for your riding style and body type where the inseam thing does not.

I don't know if anything I said above will be of any help to you, but I thought I would mention it for your consideration.

Hmmm...I've never heard that rule of thumb but I'll certainly give it some thought. The description for the Champion Flyer is basically a B17 with springs so I thought it would be fine with dropped bars as long as the bar height was at or slightly above the level of the saddle. I haven't really found the nose to be too wide but the combination of reach and handlebar height is causing me to reach too far forward and put pressure on the nose of the saddle where is should not be. If I ride with just my fingertips touching the top of the bar where I'm a little more upright it seems pretty comfortable. Today I ordered the 225mm standard Technomic stem in 70mm reach so I should be able to position the bars almost 2 inches higher and that combined with the 70mm length should reduce the reach pretty dramatically. Hopefully that will solve the saddle issues. If not, well, that's the beauty of the Panasonic - it's transportation so I'm not married to any particular saddle/stem/bar combination to be orginal or even period correct. If this doesn't work out I may swap the Brooks for a Selle Anatomica.

The Champion flyer is just a B17 with springs and it's fine for your application. It's not desighned for an upright riding position. It's too narrow for that.

I was going to offer to send you my excess Dirtdrop stem, but then I remembered that it has been turned down to 22mm for my Peugeot. I personally would not feel safe using a very tall cast stem like the Technomic. As I said, the Dirtdrop is cold forged and heat treated. It will definitely get your bars up as high as you want them.

I spent most of today stripping the anodizing off of a Technomic Deluxe and polishing it. It looks awesome!

Huh??? I thought the Flyer was a B-66 with single rails. I stand corrected.

Ok, we have the before and after stems now.

I haven't ridden it yet so additional adjustments may yet be required but it's getting there. Oh, one last thing - the cool patented triangular nut on the Deluxe Tech will fit the standard IF you have a bolt that will work. The standard comes with a regular hex nut but requires a much longer bolt than the Deluxe and oddly, though they appear to be the same diameter, they are not the same thread so you can't swap the triangular nut onto the long standard bolt to get the cool fastener. I guess it doesn't matter, it looks like a giraffe anyway but if it helps keep the family jewels in good working order then I'm OK with that

Stems - little giraffe and big giraffe:


And interestingly, the regular standard Technomic IS forged as you can see in this picture (though whether it's cold forged I have no idea, or even what that means anyway):



And finally, before and after:

Whoa, that is up there, hehe. I love the deluxe I just bought. It got the top of the stem level with the saddle, which is my comfort spot. I like to lean just slightly on the hoods, gives me a better control
feel in the curves. If my bars are too high, it always make me feel like the front wheel could plow in
a quick turn. Just a personal preference thing I guess. That is a very nice looking bike! I remember the catch pic well.....BD

I will say the Deluxe has way less "twist" than most stems I've ever had. A nice plus.

Yeah that's pretty high but now I have room to adjust it. It might not end up quite that high. I have it set up in the trainer right now so I can play around with the saddle and stem adjustment but I won't get to take it on the road until tomorrow so I don't know how it handles.

Oddly, I can't really get used to that gray color. It just looks so plain and the pink/blue/white blotches are just ugly. Still, it is one solid bike. One day I think it'll get a nice British racing green paint job with cream accents or something like that. Next though will be some Shimano 7-sp bar end shifters and a 13-32 freewheel to complete the drivetrain.

I can relate on the decal colors. I just found a Schwinn Impact MTB in smoked chrome, and the decals
are the same colors.,,,,BD

Here is the Technium on my Volare. I'm still messing with the adjusments on the saddle and the stem but right here it seems to be pretty good but I've really only ridden this bike 5 miles and don't have any bartape on it yet so the jury is still out

The grass is green and there's no snow on the ground. I'm jealous

Yeah but this was one day between rain systems and the temp was about 35 degrees in fact there were still patches of ice on the roads making for a dicey ride in spots with a North wind at around 15 mph so don't feel too bad. the next day we had snow and its been raining and snow mixed with snow and rain and even some freezing rain. It gets dark before 5:00. January in the Pacific Northwest not normally a pretty site

You might want to try lacing up your brooks. I have done it to Pros and B17s and find it very effective for flattening the top of the saddle to reduce the dreaded basin of perineal attraction.



This is on an old DA post which, like Campy and Thomson, is good for continuous tilt adjustment. If you don't need setback there's no need to go blingy; there are lots of good, 10-20 dollar 2 bolt posts out there that afaik function just as well as the expensive ones.

Kommisar89:
Here is a pic of my 520 with a B17 on it. Ignore the stem setup except for the height relative to the peak of the saddle. Look at the tilt of the saddle. If you compare the horizontal lines of the top-tube, you'll see the the web area of the saddle is what is level, with the peak allowed to be at whatever angle it happens to stop at. I adjust the bars relative to that setting.

In your case, from the pic, you can tilt the saddle up some more, and maybe tension it to get some of the hammock out of it. Also, I recommend that you try a longish ride with the saddle moved forward a tad, to get the peak forward of your perineal area. Your ischials should rotate back onto the web a little better that way - kind of like tucking your tail down.

The main problem I see is exactly as you surmise - a bar setup that is too low for a B17 type. It's causing you to lay over a saddle that is not designed to lay over.

https://i28.tinypic.com/2gtdzes.jpg

Looking at the pics again, I think the Technomic Deluxe may not have been to blame for your discomfort. It's jacked very high to begin with; lots of b17 riders get along fine with their bar tops 2-3 inches below the saddle. The problem is your hammocked saddle IMO. Tensioning works OK to fix this, but lacing works better and doesn't require buying a proprietary tool. I could be wrong though---see if having the bars up there doesn't fix things.