Changed my stem today-WOW! riding on cloud 9

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I've been riding my new Rivendell Rambouillet for about 6 weeks now. I just LOVE it.
But when I got it, I had been a new rider, used to a borrowed hybrid bike's upright position, so I had no way of knowing if my position was "right" on this road bike with drop bars- I had to rely on the Rivendell dealer guy and my DH looking at my position to tell whether things fit me or not. They both knew a great deal, and I trusted them, but they could not know all the subtle adjustments that might be needed, of course, they couldn't feel what I felt. For that I had to ride a lot and figure out what needed changing based on my long term comfort.
ONe thing we did suspect from the beginning is that perhaps it came with a longish stem intended for the typical male buyer. I am an average sized woman 5'5". Here is a photo of the rather long 9cm stem it came with:
http://harmonias.com/LisaBike_7.jpg

I had started out with some adjusting to the bike that made things "easier" for me as a new rider: seat all the way forward, handlebars tilted up in front so I could reach the brakes better, seat height somewhat lower than it should be. These adjustments were like my "training wheels". I knew they were not ideal, especially the lower seat. But I had to get used to this new bike and feel "safe".
Over the past weeks, I began to actually FEEL how some of the things were not quite right in my bike fit. I moved my saddle back more. I moved it up higher so my legs weren't so bent. I tilted my handlbars back down where they should be. But still, I simply could NOT ride with my hands in the drops and I still felt like I was falling too far forward onto my hands. But I had no experience to compare it to!
After 6 weeks it became clear that I was feeling stretched forward too far with my hands and it wasn't just because I was a new rider. We figured the stem had be shorter so the handlebars would be closer to me and I wouldn't feel I was holding my weight up with just my hands. We got a 5cm stem to replace the 9cm one. It sat in the garage getting dusty, waiting for me to get brave and say OK let's DO it!

Today we made the big change. It was quite an interesting learning process which took several hours and my DH and I enjoyed learning how to pull things apart and put them back together!
We left everything as is on one side of the handlebars (cork tape as well), but on the other side we had to do many things to swap the stem:
--remove interruptor brake and bracket.
--remove the hood and the main brake lever
--remove the cork and multiple tapings (they were on GOOD!)
--disconnect rear derailler cable from back cassette for sufficient slack
--and the hardest was figuring out how to remove the bar end shifter and cable. We had to consult Shimano diagrams.
Once all that stuff was off, we pulled the handlebar and stem up and out and slid the stem off, working it around the curves of the drop bar.
Then snaking the new stem onto the handlebar, and reversing the whole dis-assembly process.
Then we had to put back the two brake sets and get them set right, reconnect the shifter and derailler cable and retune the tension on the back derailler and get it working smoothly changing gears.
Once everything was in place and re-positioned and adjusted just right, I went for a nervous test ride.

Well, I just couldn't BELIEVE how much more comfortable my whole body position was! What a drastic and immediate difference. Instead of my weight always down and forward towards my hands, I felt i was centered in the middle of the bike and riding on a cloud!! I could now EASILY ride with my hands in the drops, and could reach the brakes easily with my whole hand now! I could reach the bar end shifters easily now. I was whooping with joy at DH while I rode round and round and up and down the street....the difference of just that approx. inch and a half was truly phenomenal. I had NO IDEA I could feel so comfy on drop bars!! Now I knew how unbalanced my weight HAD been these past 6 weeks.
The weird thing was that although my body was now bent down more, I was so much more comfortable, sort of like the feeling of being comfortably curled on your side in bed. Hard to describe, but even though I was more bent down I felt as though I could just take my hands off the handlebars and would be totally fine pedalling along without hands to hold me up at all. Maybe that was because by having my saddle back further (where it belonged) it put my legs further forward and my legs were able to keep my weight balanced better. My legs felt really good because now and I felt more power in pedalling and was able to straighten my legs more on the downstroke (but still not straight all the way, that would be not good). The new stem was also 1cm higher, and that made it easy to sit up straight on occasion and put my hands on the tops of the bars and relax and ride stretched up for a change when I wanted. All kinds of new riding positions opened up to me now and were suddenly comfortable.
We did some fine tuning adjustments to the rear derailer again so it wouldn't touch the chain at either extreme, and tightened everything up once we knew we had everything just right.

Next we had to learn how to wrap the cork bar tape onto that naked side of the handlbar again. We had the untouched side to copy, and it really went pretty smoothly and looked good. Then we did the fine "hemp twine" wrap treatment around the last inch where the cork tape ends at the stem, as a nice finishing touch- it came out perfect!
Lastly, I used 2 coats of amber shellac over the natural cork tape and twine, on both sides. This made it a nice honey color which kind of coordinates with the honey leather Brooks saddle. Also seals the tape and keeps it from absorbing hand dirt. I had not done this originally because we had anticipated the possibility of maybe having to change the stem to a shorter one when we brought the bike home. Smart move, turns out.

Anyway, my whole point with this story is to say that sometimes a bike might be made more "woman specific" anatomically by something as simple as a few centimeter difference in stem length. I can only imagine how many other women might be on bikes with long stems and might feel way more comfy by making this change.

I am so thrilled at the new feel of riding on my blue "cloud".