ATPAH

I have a relatively new Jamis Renegade, 54cm, and I have the intention of mounting a riser stem to get the bars approximately level with the seat. I find the current setup with the stock stem flipped up to be very comfortable on the hoods for most of my riding, which includes both paved and dirt roads and twisty, only moderately technical (non-technical by NE standards) singletrack. I want the riser stem to make the drops a more comfortable position in the wind and when on technical downhills (allowing me to be in more aggressive position for longer periods of time, despite my bad back) and to make it so I take less weight on the hands when riding over bumpy terrain on the hoods.

I have a couple questions related to getting the right stem. When going to a riser stem, the horizontal reach to the hoods is going to be less for a similar length stem, so should I be looking at a slightly longer stem to keep the horizontal distance relatively consistent? For example, I could replace the 80mm 7-degree stock stem with a 90mm, 25-degree stem or a 80mm, 30-degree stem to get the height right. With the latter, I'd be giving-up 20mm of horizontal reach, but with the longer stem, I'd only be giving back 7mm of reach. I have plenty of room to slide back the saddle position either way, and I could probably stand to do so a little regardless, so I'm not currently thinking of going with a longer stem than 90mm. With respect to the angle of the stem, my general thought is that the lower the angle, the less stupid it looks, but otherwise, it's just a question of where your hands end-up.

My question is related to handling characteristics, as well as fit and feel. I don't mind making the steering arc shorter. Coming from a mtb and riding mtb trails on the CX bike, I generally appreciate the extra responsiveness. If I'm raising the bars, however, I'll have less weight on the front wheel, at least when on the hoods, and I expect that would be exacerbated by moving my position back. Where is this trade-off felt - in cornering stability, in enhanced OTB potential? I assume both of these will be compensated to some degree (fully?) when I am in the drops, but I'm trying to get a sense of how the feel of a bike has changed for those who have made similar changes as old age has required you to hybridize your road bikes before you were ready to give up riding like a kid.

Carbonfiberboy 

You might take your bike into your LBS, have them put it on a trainer with the front tire propped up level and remove the bars. Then hold them where you want them and have them measure angle and length. If you can, look in a mirror and get your upper arms and torso at about a 90° angle while doing this. I don't think this will negatively affect handling. Many long distance riders have bars level with their saddle, but they usually do it on a new bike with spacers rather than going to a riser stem, but there's no geometrical difference, only appearance. IIRC, a common estimate is 1 cm up, 2 cm out. Personally, I've never been able to hit it on the first try. I have a box with quite a few stems in it.

Ryder1

Each rider has unique fit/style/trails, but I'd guess cornering stability will suffer first, not OTB potential. Move those grips up high enough, and you start losing that sense of what's going on with the front wheel, and lose the ability to adequately weight it in a natural, dynamic way. It's a terrible feeling. Wanna understeer off that edge? Nope. Getting balanced is key. Offroad, I like to have a little rearward bias, while maintaining the ability to weight (and unweight) the front intuitively/immediately.

I use Stem Comparison Tool | yojimg.net + various stem lengths/angles and a bag of various size stem spacers (I swear 2mm makes a difference!) and test by trial and error until I'm "dialed." I like to move the grips up, up, up until... "wait, too far up, back down a bit.... OK, right there." Stem length complicates things, so trial/error is necessary, but after awhile, you get a sense of what you need. I can look at a frame geo table and start running stem/bars etc. possibilities through my brain.

I do all this with my saddle position in a predetermined position across all bikes, with some micro changes as needed. This simplifies things somewhat. I also find the stem calculator essential.

Sounds like you're on the right track. For a quality riser stem, my go-to is the Ritchey Pro 30*. I just picked up a 40* Bontrager Elite but haven't ridden it yet. Looks decent. Salsa makes a 25*. If you need a new bar, the Specialized Hover has 15mm of rise. Kinda cool looking IMO.

ATPAH

Thanks, Ryder1. I looked at the Ritchey but just ordered a 90mm 25-degree Salsa guide stem based on my own estimation of where I wanted to land geometry wise without changing my forward position too much. Having landed on my face Sunday (stick in spokes), I'm ok with moving back a little for my off-road adventures, but I really liked how the front-end was tracking. At least with a taller stem, I can more readily get down in the drops when I most need the bike to behave.

tyrion

When climbing with higher bars the bars are closer to your body, which is kind of awkward and cramped feeling, and on really steep hills it makes it harder to keep the front wheel down. That's the only real negative (other than aerodynamics) of high handlebars, IMO.

Ryder1

I've never owned a dedicated trail bike with drops (ie "monstercross"), but as I understand, it's common to set up the bar high, and predominately use the (wide, flared) drops. Since you're riding mixed surfaces, I'd guess you'd want to hedge things a bit so you can still get some use from your hoods. Which sounds like what you're doing...

ATPAH

Yep. We'll see if hedging things works or whether I need to go higher and just get on board with being in the drops all the time, like some in the gravel cognescenti suggest. Regardless, I'm not opposed to having a box full of stems like CFB. It will give me options, both for myself and for keeping my kids comfortable on their bikes as they grow.

RockiesDad

This ^^^...

I'm in this process right now waiting for my new stem to be delivered. I'm going from a 90mm +6deg to a 90mm +17deg stem. I have 25mm worth of spacers to play with also. I'm looking for a more upright position and also bringing my elbows in a bit. Hope I ordered the right stem. Will know soon...

McBTC

Try things out first... you may be surprised. I flipped the stem and had no problems; but, ultimately had to raise the bars even higher when going shorter (10mm) cranks on my road bike.

Still, as it turns out, nothing shorter than the OEM stem was required after going with a stem riser. I base my conclusion on the desirable position of the elbows on the pads of clip-on aerobars (i.e., the upper arm being pretty much perpendicular to the ground).

In my situation, my body position when riding on the aerobars is a bit lower than riding in the drops. This position is accommodated in part with going to the shorter cranks but you may also find that your seat positioning changes when you move things around--e.g., my seat went back a bit and needs to be pointed down a little as riding on aerobars requires that you bring the hips forward a bit as you ride closer to the nose of the saddle than when riding on the hoods.