Stem Angles
 

I'm wanting to get some more elevation for my handlebars on a Cannondale Carbon Topstone 105. the stem has a 7º. If I swap it out with a 20º how much height do I gain? Trying to get a little more height with the handlebars to alleviate some shoulder discomfort?

It depends on the length of the stems. You might have to do a little bit of trig to know for sure. Whether you gain three or 3.5cm really doesn’t matter though.

if you have halfway decent health insurance, it should cover a bike fit. Pain during physical activity is something that insurance companies are actually motivated to help you with, because it increases physical activity.

sometimes bringing the stem closer is as effective as raising it, and in my own experience, changing saddle position did more to eliminate hand pain than anything I tried with the bars, and I tried a lot.

I would recommend a proper bike fit

However this is super handy to learn a little more on stems and changing angles and such from someone who knows a thing or two:
Stems - Soulcraft Cycles

You can also use this stem comparison tool to visualize how different stem angles and lengths will affect reach and height.

Trigonometry is your friend.

This is my go to stem comparison tool.

Regarding the Yojimg stem tool site, whenever I try to go there on my iPad I get a security warning from Safari, anyone else get that?

Yup, the stem tool that is linked is what ive used multiple times for family bikes. It removes guesswork and it removes me from having to learn/remember/attempt trig.

I'm just glad none of this involves Calculus! :eek:

I'm a HS math teacher. I'm beyond happy to see not one, but TWO people cite the usefulness of trigonometry.

I'm not saying I can remember any of it...But at least I remember enough to know when it would be useful.

Now, calculus -- I can do that all day long.

You're not alone. I get a security warning with Chrome.

1) core exercises. Bridges, planks, side planks, squats. Especially the bridges and squats.

2) put your weight into the pedals. You should be hovering just above the saddle and only just *touching* the handlebars.

It’s a bicycle, not a field plow and not a bar stool.

If ,when you’re neither sprinting or braking hard, you feel your arms being somewhat tight- shake them loose and “feel” out the location of the bottom bracket. Balance on and slightly in front of that location. That is home. You’ll find yourself mostly steering with the rear wheel and just using the front mostly as a sort of feeler/antennae and you’ll have happy shoulders.

This. Sore hands and sore butts are much less likely to occur when all your weight is on the pedals instead of the seat or bars.

The problem is the site uses https (pretty much all sites now do). https is supposed to be "secure", but part of the security relies on the site providing a "certificate" that is intended to prove it is legitimate, by providing a chain of trust back to an originating "certificate authority" or CA. You can argue what real value this trust chain provides, but your system maintains a list of CAs it trusts, and hence trusts certificates derived from it. So in this case the certificate offered by the site can't be linked back to an originating CA. So don't send any info that you don't want potentially compromised to to the site via a form or query. In this case I don't think providing the stem measurement data is a risk so you might create an exception if your browser / system policy allows it.

scott s.
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