gpelpel

We all have heard about uncool it is to flip the stem up.
I just found the following photo on the web. It's of Floyd Landis yellow bike.
https://sports.yahoo.com/sc/photo?slu..._am&prov=getty
Look at the stem! It's up.
Will it become the new trend?

timmhaan

i noticed that as well. it looks like a touring bike...

Chad's Colnago

Probably has something to do with his hip, just a guess.

Mo'Phat

Damn that foul, wretched, cursed, demonbike. Almost lost him everything.

roadfix

We at BF will give him a pass on that one since he is using no spacers.

Smoothie104

the bar to seat height looks the same as last year, when he used an almost zero rise stem. He appears to be riding a smaller frame as well.

He does not sit on his bike like a highwheeler or hybrid, which is a what a lot of folks on here are doing when they come back from the shop. read the thread "flip it back" that was started a few days ago.

cabinet2621

notice how they double taped the bar end? I hate that, come on guys push the overlap into the bar end giving a snug fit to the bar ends, and a clean look. Hell, I give Cat 5's crap about this... but a pro team? I would have expected more.

cabinet2621

and two different color yellows... wow that bike looks good from a distance!! come on lets raise the bar Phonak...

blue_nose

I agree, there is still a pretty good sized drop from the seat to the hoods.

GuitarWizard

He still has plenty of drop there....

TheKillerPenguin

Give the guy a break, he's menonite

voltman

I think he needs a lighter saddle.

C_Heath

Good answer

ken cummings

Levi liked it so much he changed teams to get one .

Corsaire

Getting hip to a higher position
Dear Lennard,
I am a 47-year-old new Cat 4 racer doing road races and hill climbs. I just had my bike refitted for my aging body (a 57cm Bianchi titanium XL Reparto Corse with an Easton SL fork) at the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine. They replaced my flat 120mm stem with a 110 stem with a 15-degree rise and placed the levers high on the bars. This has resulted in a fit where holding the levers is the most comfortable and default riding position. While I was skeptical (this is not the set up of the Category 1-3 riders I see), they insisted that this more upright position will give me more power and avoid back pain. Then, while watching the Tour de France, I noticed that Floyd Landis appears to ride with a stem with a rise and the hoods very high on the bars. My questions: Is Landis unique among pros in his use of a stem with a rise and hoods placed high, and second, is this position preferred over the classic long flat stem with a long reach to the hoods? Finally, if so, why are most of the pro bikes still fitted that way?
Terence

Dear Terence,
Most other riders in the Tour are not nursing a broken, necrotic hip. Floyd can't tolerate that low position. I think that other Tour riders would benefit on mountain stages from a higher handlebar position, but I think they may be right in running their bars low for flat stages due to the demands of racing on the flats at the speeds they do. And since none of them ever want to change their position, they'll use it on the mountain stages.

If you've ever ridden with a power meter, you would know that it takes a lot more power to ride at 30 mph than at 25 mph. And that increase in power is a lot greater than the one required to make the prior 5 mph leap from 20 to 25 mph. So doing everything possible to hide from the wind may be a must, especially for domestiques. The team leaders are only at the front when the road goes up; they need not worry about cranking out 30 mph with their tongues out at the front on the flats. The one time Floyd had to do that, on his long solo breakaway, he cut the wind resistance by resting his elbows on the bars to bring his arms in out of the wind in an aero-bar position without an aero bar.Lennard

Mehow

why does it appear (to me) that his rims are not machined?

classic1

Was fairly common among 'specialist' climbers 10-15years ago. Pantani for one had his bars set high.

kuan

Ah yes, when people see me they must think... hmmm... stem up, team leader.

ravenmore

It does have something to do with his hip. One of the bazillion interviews I read this week on him they were talking about concessions of his bike position he had to make to accomodate his hip. His TT position is another example.

urbanknight

Just as Dizzy was allowed to play with a weird lip position, Landis can have an abnormal stem. If you're better than almost everyone else, nobody else should try to tell you how to do it better. I'm sure there will now be a large number of people flipping their stems back now. Sheep. So glad I have a 0 degree stem, no matter which way you have it, it's still the same

Because they don't usually machine carbon fiber rims.

pelotonracer

CLimbing stage, aerodynamics don't really matter more than comfort.

PrfectHair4ever

I flip my stem and my saddle is raised to exactly that position... Ive had a mild lower back problem since I was a kid.

chadbryant

Ok, I'm a newbie and just starting to learn about bikes and close to buying my first bike. So, I'm pretty ignorant about all of this stuff, but learning (or trying to anyway). So, I think I've figured out what a stem is, but I don't know why this stem from the Landis picture is referred to as "up"? And does anyone have a pic of a stem that is not flipped up so that I can compare and see the difference? Also, why does it matter?

Thanks!

Chad

maximum01

Like that's going to make any difference on a Tour stage.......perhaps on a time trial.

There's plenty of pros who ride with raised stems....it's called comfort.

shokhead

My stem is up and a couple of spacers,and?