Slammin' dat Stem?
 

Guys have you slammed them already?

For those who have, how is it?

For those who havent, why not?

Kindly share your thoughts pls, thanks!

No, it's too low for me. Doesn't work for everybody.

I do have mine slammed but I'm using riser bars now not my drops so nbd.

Eddy Merckx told me not to.

I can't get mine high enough, so no slammin' for me.

Probably last place I need to slam my stem

http://i.imgur.com/RpwFYDA.jpg?2

But sometimes only style is what counts

http://www.pedalroom.com/p/sr-semi-pro-4881_6.jpg

im currently slammajamma'd with 720 wide flat bars. I like it. I'm hip.

My understanding that a slammed stem is negative rise, no spacers. Is this not right? Mine is currently on the positive rise, but now that it is up, it needs to be flipped. Can't get comfortable on the bike and I think that it is dialed in for it to be negative. Will be taking care of that Monday am.

of course.... when the stem is stacked onto of piles of spacers it looks plain ugly to me. The pillar that looks like a giraffes neck looks like you've bought the wrong frame geo. Also its even more ugly with the stem placed in middle or slammed to the bottom with a spacers stacked above it, the stump it leaves sticking out hurts my eyes. The the day i bought my bike i removed all but one small spacer and took a hacksaw to the head tube. Much happier.

If the slammed stem look makes people happy then go for it.

For me however, how a bike looks is secondary to how it fits - comfort on long rides, injury prevention, optimizing power output, etc.

Slamming the stem because you care what other people think is just pride. I'd rather ride an ugly fast bike than a slow show bike.


-Tim-

Nope. My back is flat with running a -17 stem with 20mm spacers under it.

Agreed. I am having trouble getting comfortable on my bike. I need the stem to be about an inch or so higher. Like many, I really prefer the look of a slammed stem with a negative rise, but t my neck doesn't agree. I'd rather feel good than look good.

I've slammed it. It's awesome.
Until your shoulder aches and your neck hurts from being at an uncomfortable angle, and you keep cracking it. and you start applying Ben-Gay on your back because oh my god it hurt.

There will be no slamming of the stem here!:50:

I dont slam my stem but most spacers make the stem look ugly. I've never seen an alloy spacer with a smaller diameter that makes it look like part of the stem. Most spacers overlap the stem. Do you guys know what im talking about?

You mean most spacers are larger than the stem? Most I've seen are close to a match.

Like this

https://i.imgur.com/2cEdBld.jpg

Im just anal about it

No pic. :)

It took a while to figure out :roflmao2:

I see what you mean. That would drive me nuts too.

I used to race. ON a bike that fit me well. I varied my stem height depending on the race, the time of year and my fitness. Winter it came up, coming slowly down over the summer. Slammed for criteriums. Up for 100 mile races. On my custom bikes, it is usually somewhere in between.

To me, slammed as a matter of course tells me the bike fit is "just barely" there.

I'm going to ride Cycle Oregon fixed with probably 1-2 cms showing and sweet, sweet fit.

Ben

If you have a carbon fiber steering column, it's recommended to leave a bit of it sticking up past the stem, and use at least one small spacer. This is done to minimize risk of it cracking due to the clamping force from the stem right at its edge.

I prefer to have spacers, good looking colored spacers can be quite nice. I prefer comfort over pretending to be cool or a racer or whatever the case might be.

Nope, my back said no.

Always best to try long term before committing/ cutting that steerer down.

I'm using a quill stem adapter and slammed the stem with a positive rise. I love that it looks so ugly, and the reach feels pretty good so far.
My neck ache has gone down between my shoulder blades though.
Weird.

Why did you do that?

I talked about bikes that if in my post above. I have had many bikes that didn't fit. Wasn't going to learn until years later I should have a longer reach tot he handlebars than can be done on most bikes without ridiculous stems. As a result, I rode those bikes with my stems slammed (And hit the HBs many, many times with my knees, sometimes hard.

Until I had my eyes opened, all my stems had dents in their throats. I now have custom stems on two bikes plus 130, 135 amd 140 stock stems on others. The insight I got 29 years ago was that I could move my handlebars along a line of "slope" 2 cm horizontally and 1 cm in line with the steerer and not change my basic position. A very useful number. Now I love my HBs on that same line but much further forward. A lot better upwind. Biggest drawback is climbing very steep hills out of the saddle on wet roads or sand. (Rear tire traction with my weight that far forward.) But out of the saddle climbing all day is wonderful on that same setup.

So now when I see slammed stems I think "he's not enlightened yet". (Edit: Enlightened threadless riders have a spacer or two on top. See my post first page.)

Ben

I should post one of my bikes, I have about 50 or 60mm of spacers on the headset. Looks dumb, but its stupid comfortable and allows me much better visability when out riding around in traffic.

Slammed with a -17 degree stem and track drops is the only way to roll.

I actually like to keep spacers for a little bit of adjustment, at least 10mm but no more than 30mm or it gets ridiculous looking and your frame is either too small or wrong geometry. Sometimes ppl are just lazy about cutting their fork and have a stack of spacers above the stem until they finally get around to it lol.

:eek: