I have a 58cm Specialized, but I always feel I am reaching. It doesn’t bother me to much when on the road, but on the trainer it is causing neck strain. I will be measuring the stem tonight and ordering something shorter. My question is, how short is to short? I would like to put some clip on aero bars on for a tri this upcoming season, and I couldn’t do that with the current reach.
I am 6’0 tall, if that matters.
i also have a Venge in 58cm and it was definitely bother my lower more than my neck so i went down from 110 to 90mm and it was still achy… finally decided to try a enve 75mm stem and most of my pain has now gone away and i feel more into a neutral position (yes, the frame is a bit too big for me 5"11 with 32 1/2 inseam)
so basically I’d say go as short as needed… no different than having a 130~140mm stem on a bike that would otherwise be too small for you. As i understand the “normal” range would from 90mm on the short side to 110mm but still whatever makes you as comfortable is what you need!!!
What model is it?
How okay are you with twitch steering? MTBs have super short stems.
Specialized Roubiax. I did not get fit, but I only paid $300 for the bike and am just trying to figure out how committed I am to riding/running and triathlon’s so new bike is not in the cards (Plus I need some new golf clubs) 
I currently have a 70mm on my bikes. Thats the shortest you can really go on a road bike (from what I can find, you might want to check out mountain bike stems) I have the problem where I have long legs and a short torso so I decided to go up to a 61cm frame over the 58. I know people are will argue that your bike will be too twitchy and might as well go to a shorter frame but It was either a shorter stem or a super long one for me. Ive had both and I honestly like the short stems better. You will notice it at first but really isnt that different since I have gotten used to it. If anything, it helps me with my reflexes on the bike. I might even go smaller on my tri bike if I can find one…
I did hear that your fit on the trainer might be different than the road. Maybe someone can help me out as to why but I have read that peoples fit on the trainers are different. It might be good to buy a cheap stem in the mean time just to try it out and then make sure you hold on to the one you have now.
I have a 58cm Specialized, but I always feel I am reaching. It doesn’t bother me to much when on the road, but on the trainer it is causing neck strain. I will be measuring the stem tonight and ordering something shorter. My question is, how short is to short? I would like to put some clip on aero bars on for a tri this upcoming season, and I couldn’t do that with the current reach.
I am 6’0 tall, if that matters.
You didn’t say what length the stock stem was.
I had a 90mm on my original tribike and went to 75mm, worked great.
I’d say short the stem by no more than 20mm.
My MTB has a 100mm (17’ TopFuel 9.8) so thats not a 100% true statement. Most Trail/DH bikes have shorter stems generally speaking. XC Longer
“Par” for stem length is typically 100mm. 80mm-120mm is in the “normal” range. Much longer or shorter than that and you may notice handling issues. As a PP said, 70mm is probably as short as you should go.
There are lots of cheap, high quality stems ex.:http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=80mm+stem+31.8+3T&LH_PrefLoc=1&_sop=15&LH_BIN=1&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.Xstem+31.8+3T.TRS0&_nkw=stem+31.8+3T&_sacat=0
I have a 100g 120mm 3T alloy stem on my tri bike, I think I paid $22 for new.
Don’t forget: The stem is only one of two places you can save yourself some sizing. The other is the seatpost.
My original road bike was also a 58 when I’ve long since learned I should have been on a 56. Sad part is that I actually DID get a fit, paid a few hundred for it too. The guy who fit me had me so stretched out that I was never comfortable. Consequently, I hated the bike for a long time.
After a couple of years thinking it was just my fault and that was what cycling was supposed to be like, I was so miserable that I decided I was either going to get comfortable or stop cycling altogether. There was no way I was going to fork over another couple hundred dollars for another fit. I knew what the problem was.
I tried going with a really short stem (I think I found a 70 mm one but I’ve seen as short as 60 mm) but that made the steering awfully twitchy.
Fortunately, my bike came with a set-back seatpost 20mm that was reversible. One of the bontrager ones. So I was able to spin it around and move myself 40 mm forward. Combined that with a 100mm stem I was OK.
You can get road stems as short as 50mm. If you’re using clip-on aerobars, the stem length won’t impact steering.
You can get road stems as short as 50mm. If you’re using clip-on aerobars, the stem length won’t impact steering.
To add to this, you can move the entire cockpit closer to your seat post by using aerobars where the pads can be moved backwards behind the basebar centerline. So whether you have a long stem with a short length aerobar extenstion and pads behind base bar or a longer aerobar extension on a short stem with pads above base bar centerline, you’re doing the exact same thing in space. It only affects steering when your hands are on basebar.
You can get road stems as short as 50mm. If you’re using clip-on aerobars, the stem length won’t impact steering.
To add to this, you can move the entire cockpit closer to your seat post by using aerobars where the pads can be moved backwards behind the basebar centerline. So whether you have a long stem with a short length aerobar extenstion and pads behind base bar or a longer aerobar extension on a short stem with pads above base bar centerline, you’re doing the exact same thing in space. It only affects steering when your hands are on basebar.
I wasn’t aware the aerobars like this existed. Interesting.
I will measure my stem in a couple hours and report back.