Originally Posted by
Creatre
I hear you, I appreciate your guys advice. I think unfortunately I'm just like slightly better off on the bigger frame. It's the +6 stem more so than the spacers. The spacers with a -6 or -17 wouldn't look bad. I've actually rocked that some in the past.
I think I'm going to go with the bigger frame, get a handlebar with less reach, and get a 100mm stem and I'll end up having about 4mm more reach and 3mm lower than my current setup. I used to have a decent setup that was 9mm more reach, and 7mm lower, so this should be a good middle ground.
Not sure if it's too late or what but the shorter top tube affects weight distribution. It's not about reach, it's about how much weight you have on the front wheel. If you get a shorter stem your hands are further back relative to the front wheel (meaning like compared to where your hands are relative to, say, the front hub). With about a 110-120mm stem and normal bars I like the weight distribution for cornering etc. With compact reach I want a 14 cm stem to place my hands in the same fore/aft region relative to the front wheel.
When you have a bit more weight on the front wheel, when you have a slightly longer stem, the bike is more stable at speed. This is what I found after trying the Missus's bike, which was really squirrelly with a 90mm stem (hers) and then a 120-130mm stem (mine). At the time we rode about the same size bike so I could ride her bike with one of my stems. With the longer stem and literally everything else the same it was much better. Therefore I chalked up the wiggly tendencies to the only thing I changed, the stem length. With the 90mm stem it was wiggly, even under me.