Short Stem
 

I just bought my daughter her first road bike. She is TINY, however, she's able to ride her new (to her) Fuji Finest 1.0 44cm pretty well. It is a tad too big for her, but probably just for the next few months. The stem on it is a 100. I'd like to shrink that down so she can reach the hoods a bit better. What is the shortest stem you would recommend putting on there. I know the shorter they get the twitchier the steering gets. 70? 60?

Thanks.

http://i798.photobucket.com/albums/y...oeDaughter.jpg

The "twitchy steering" urban legend is overrated, anyway. Get her a stem as short as she needs. As long as the bar is somewhere in front of the steering axis, she'll be fine.

While you're at it, look for a really compact handlebar--short reach and drop. Make sure the clamp diameter is compatible with the inline levers and the stem you end up with

I agree, go as short as you need to. Let the full fledged roadies argue about how long the stem needs to be not to "screw up" the handling. It's not something a kid needs to worry about. And it's arguable if the rest of us need to...

The right length wont be twitchy, go as short as you want. Twitchy is what you get when its too short for the rider, it can be twitchy if its too long for the rider too

Hard to tell from pictures but is it flipped up now? If not you could flip it over and get a bit more rise. What size are the bars? My wifes trainer bike has 26.5 (I think) bars and it was tough to find a short stem. I found and oversized short stem and used shims. They grow so fast you might think about an adjustable one to.

In the picture, the stem is still flipped BF style. Halfway through the ride we stopped and I flipped it back up. Made it more comfortable, but the reach to the drops is still pretty stretched out.

From the data sheet:

Handlebars: Fuji UltraLite 6061 Double Butted, 31.8mm w/Anatomical drops

How about a 40mm?

http://www.jensonusa.com/Stems/Spank-Spoon-Stem

The specs for that 40 mm stem dont say what size steerer tube they are for. So it might not work.

Good point. Hadn't caught that.

You're in luck. Lots of short stems and narrow compact handlebars with 31.8 clamp sections are available. Jenson even has one: http://www.jensonusa.com/Handlebars/...Reach-Road-Bar. They have a passel of short stems with 31.8 clamps for you, too.

A great pic and story Joe.
As the other guys said...flip the stem up and run a shorter stem...won't hurt handling...especially on a small bike
She will grow into it for sure...and appears to be a bit stretch out like you say.
Congrat on getting your daughter into the sport.

Joe....nice story she looks to be enjoying. If I were you I would go for 70 or less and find a bar with a short reach and drop like the FSA omega compact. cheap bar with 80mm reach and 125mm drop. Can be had cheap on ebay too. here are some links...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/FSA-OS-190-M...item460ad8f255

http://www.ebay.com/itm/FSA-Omega-Co...item5d3be11d7d

Great input. Thank you. I didn't know they made bars that small. I appreciate the insights.

Correct. The bars can even be behind the steering axis and you can ride fine.

Thanks. Just ordered this. I figure it's a good first step. We'll see where we go from there.

Cinelli ANT Stems

• 6061-T6, M5 bolts front and rear

[TABLE]
[TR]
[TH="colspan: 2"]Item Specifications[/TH]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Color[/TD]
[TD="class: seqbpdata"]Black[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: seqbpevenrow"]
[TD]Weight[/TD]
[TD="class: seqbpdata"]110g[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Intended Use[/TD]
[TD="class: seqbpdata"]Road[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: seqbpevenrow"]
[TD]Bar Clamp Diameter[/TD]
[TD="class: seqbpdata"]31.8mm[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Stem Angle[/TD]
[TD="class: seqbpdata"]84,96deg[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: seqbpevenrow"]
[TD]Stem Length[/TD]
[TD="class: seqbpdata"]60mm[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Defined Color[/TD]
[TD="class: seqbpdata"]Black[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: seqbpevenrow"]
[TD]S.H.I.S. Clamp Diameter[/TD]
[TD="class: seqbpdata"]28.6[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

http://mikesbikes.com/images/library...odl/SM5114.jpg