how short a stem is too short?

[madscot13]

I'm in the same situation! Overly long top tube but overly short body. Well you might not be as petite as me but it amounts to the same thing. I'm going to do two things: get a shorter stem and a Salsa poco. I think I am only going to shorten the stem by 10-20 mm and the poco will shorten my reach by 20mm. Also I'm going to pick up bars that are closer to my shoulder width and I might gain back some reach that way as well. I considered byuing bars that were 30mm shorter but that would probably be too dramatic. If I need to in the future I will, but as we say in Crew small adjustments...

[HillSlugger]

I've got poco's on both bikes. I was never comfortable on the hood with the stock Sequoia bars.