Riser Stem?

[tongue_tied]

Also, last year I had a very short riser stem put on my bike and I didn't notice any difference in handling or twitchiness (sp?) with the new stem. What I did notice was that my shoulders are no longer hunched all the time and most of my neck pains have gone away.

That's exactly why my bike shop fitted me with a very short riser stem. And it's definitely made a difference.

[Catrin]

I called the LBS that I want to perform the fitting and just explained the situation to them. I do not have to wait to reach the requisite mileage before they will fit me. So I just have to wait for some money to come in that I am expecting and will schedule the fitting. I may still move the shifters to the bars, but won't do anything else until afterwords.

[OakLeaf]

Just so you understand the concept, and I hope I can explain this right, it isn't really the length of the stem that makes the front wheel twitch in response to every hiccup of your hands ... it's the handlebar offset.

Extend an imaginary line through the center of your head tube and steerer tube. Now draw another imaginary line, parallel to the ground, from the center of your handlebars/handlebar clamp, toward the rear of the bike. The distance from your handlebars to the line coming from your steerer tube is the handlebar offset.

To take an extreme example, let's say you've got an adjustable stem, and you set it so there's no angle in it at all (I don't think that's possible, but just for the sake of argument) - it just extends straight up from your steerer tube. Now, it doesn't matter whether that stem is 6 cm or 16 cm, you've still got zero offset, and the bike will be nearly unrideable.

To take a more real world example, it looks like your stem rise may be as steep as 45° (which is pretty darn extreme) - let's say for the sake of argument that you have a stem with a 45° rise, because that way I can use the Pythagorean theorem and don't have to try to remember trigonometry. (And somebody correct me if I'm wrong!)

Say you want an offset of 10 cm from a stem with a 45° rise. You've got an isosceles right triangle, with the offset line being one side and the stem itself as the hypotenuse. Using the Pythagorean theorem, you'll see that your stem must be a little over 14 cm (the square root of 200) to give you that offset. Working in the other direction, if you have a 6 cm stem with a 45° rise, your handlebar offset is a little over 4 cm.

[nscrbug]

That's exactly why my bike shop fitted me with a very short riser stem. And it's definitely made a difference.

x2...I have a short stem (80mm) with a fairly significant rise (17 degrees) on my bike, and I haven't noticed any handling issues. I too, have suffered from neck, shoulder, and hand/wrist pain...hence the shorter stem. I can't say with total certainty that it has helped a great deal (my frame is still too large), but it's better than it was before. I'm in the process of finding a new bike...one that fits me better...but until I find one, my too-large Trek will have to do for the time being, since I am trying to sell my Cervelo (which did fit me well, but was too aggressive geometry for me) and would like to keep it clean and ready to sell at a moments' notice.

[Catrin]

Good point. I went back to the pictures Catrin originally posted of the bike to get the bigger picture. Oakleaf is right that the stem is awfully short. Your bars are also high relative to your saddle. Was that a conscious decision on your part?

If you'd let me, I wouldn't mind riding the bike myself for a few minutes to get a feel for it.

IndySteel - you would be quite welcome to ride it for a few minutes to get a feel for it. Indeed I would like someone to who has much more experience than I do.

As far as the stem being so short - that is what came with the Complete build from Surly. The bar height came from the store, they applied the measurements from my 7.6 fitting to this bike. I am not going to change the bar height for now, but I will lower my saddle a scooch or two and if that helps for now.

Oakleaf - thank you for the explanation of stem and twitchiness. I am not very good at math I am afraid, but I got the idea. It doesn't SEEM that twitchy until I start moving around on the bike - though it is harder to hold a line with this bike than my Trek. Of course, I have 160 miles on my Trek, and 25 trainer miles and 20 riding miles on the LHT...

I am going to go ahead and have the shifters moved to the top of the bars...the more I think about it - the wiser an idea that seems. Same shifters, just on top of the bars rather than the ends.