Quote Originally Posted by lindah View Post
One thing I didn't mention is that I test rode a redline conquest classic recently (prior to my voluminous online research) and found it to be a looong reach. I was told that that could be mitigated by shortening the stem - but I have since read that this makes a bike squirrelly. What do you think?
Any idea what length stem was on the one you tested? Mine has a 90mm stem, which is shorter than my road bike's 100mm stem. I think that ended up making the reach maybe 15mm shorter. But it didn't feel at all squirrely. I think I could easily go 70-80mm and feel well in control, since the bike is already a lot less responsive/aggressive/stiff than my road bike. I had actually contemplated putting a longer stem on my Conquest, but we think flipping the existing stem will get me the reach and position that I prefer.