indybiker01

I am comfortable and that is all that matters but why would the stem be at such an angle up?

Most I see are a bit flatter...

AEO

because
1: you aren't flexible enough to reach that far down with the stem flipped down.
2: a larger bike would be using a shorter stem.
3: the carbon steerer tube can't be extended too high.

4: you have odd proportions and are not flexible enough, so you're on a bike that has a shorter top tube to accommodate your shorter torso, but the head tube is not tall enough to keep you in a comfortable position.


actually, from the looks of it, you need a shorter stem because your levers are jacked, which is a sign that they are too far forward. Rotating the lever up like that shortens the reach, but makes the levers useless in the drops.

indybiker01

i am not going to be racing anytime soon anyways but it looks janky...but i guess function over form

56 cm bike...the guy says my legs need a 54 but my torso needs a 58.......i have shorter legs but a freakish upper torso..i am just a tad short of 6 foot
i am a fairly flexible guy..he has the stem rise/drop angle at 96 degrees....handle bar drop 14.4...handle bar reach 8.2....stem length 120...46 inch bars

AEO

by reach, I mean your overall cockpit size
by drop, I mean the vertical drop from saddle top to top of the bars

AdamDZ

The stem length and angle just like the seatpost height are variables that are adjusted to create the proper geometry to fit the rider. So they're different for each combination of bike and rider. Yours really doesn't look bad or anything, many non-racers would have their stem set up similarly to yours, I wouldn't be concerned.

Adam

HillRider

My take is that your frame is too small. I base that on the great amount of seatpost you have extended on what seems to be a non-compact frame. A larger frame would have a longer headtube and get the bars higher without needing to up-angle the stem.

That said, it it's comfortable to ride, leave it as is.

DaveSSS 

It does look like a 58cm would have been no problem, based on the height of the saddle above the TT. You wouldn't need the flipped up stem with a 58cm.

Perhaps as you gains fitness, you can flip the stem, but that will lower the bars about 2cm. The stem will also be 8-9mm longer, when flipped down, so you might need one size shorter.

Next time, look for a head tube length or frame stack that is about 2cm taller. Other C'dale models have this taller frame stack.

zzyzx_xyzzy

I don't know how he sizes for your legs but it looks like you have a very long seat post extension and a substantial saddle to bar drop even with the stem flipped up. From the length of that seat post and the way the hood placement looks like you are having trouble reaching down that low, you could definitely go up a frame size or two.

For many many years it was traditional to fit a road bike with four inches of seat post so that you could just straddle the top tube (with substantial teabaggage involved). Then something (mountain bikes? widely televised tour de france coverage? integrated brakeshifting?) came along and ruined everything so people expect a furlong of seat post and "professional fits" at shops put people on bikes that are two sizes too small -- the hoods are where the drops used to be and the drops are where very few people can ride in them for more than a couple miles at a time. Which is OK if you are a serious racer, with no upper body mass and seeking to eke out every bit of aerodynamic advantage at the expense of comfort, not so great if you are an ordinary person who wants to go on long enjoyable road rides.

my .02c.

Al1943

You need a larger frame. I'm guessing that the fit kit called for a 54 measured c-c but what you got was a 54 measured c-t. On a frame with big tubes that can be a huge difference.

rschleicher

As a quick side comment, I think the position of the bike in the photo makes the saddle to bar drop seem larger than it really is. The front wheel is a bit lower than the rear wheel. If the photo had been taken on more level ground, and with the camera level, I think the saddle to bar drop wouldn't look nearly as large. Just my $0.02...

ryker

What did you tell the fitting specialist about your intended riding style? If you told the fitter that you wanted to get some mileage under your belt and then start racing, you might have gotten what you asked for. Other than the position of the brifters, your setup looks reasonable to me (disclaimer: without seeing you on it).

ScrubJ

I'm going with the frame being being too small. A lot of seat post reveal and the odd position of the brifters along with the up turned stem seem to indicate an incorrect fit.

Kimmo

How does it feel if you flip the stem?

mawtangent

Good eye...now that you mention this, it almost looks like it actually has a sloping top-tube which would not make the seatpost-length exposure so bad. OP, would you show us a picture of the bike standing on a level surface (I've read that white garage doors are the best for background).

FBinNY 

Stem angle doesn't count. What matters is where the handle bar ends up. If it's in the right place for you, how it got there is irrelevant. Moreover a rising stem makes more engineering sense than an extended steerer and a horizontal stem.

AEO

trick to getting a good shot is to do it on a level ground with flat background. Take the shot with the highest zoom your camera allows, forcing you to stand far from the bike, which flattens out the perspective.

deep_sky

You have two choices:
1)Set your bike up to look like a professional racer's bike, and be uncomfortable for the sake of looking like a wannabe OR
2) Set your bike up to be comfortable, and to hell with anyone who thinks it doesn't look "pro" enough

I'd know which one I'd take

ScrubJ

I'm 5'8" and I ride a 56cm frame. Along with the flipped stem, anyone pay any attention to the number of spacers under the stem?

Sixty Fiver

At first glance it looks like the bike is too small for it's rider... there is a mile of seat post there, a really long stem (120 mm ?), and a bunch of spacers under the stem... and the position of the brifters is all wrong.

With some odd proportions of the OP I can see how getting any off the peg bike to fit as being a little problematic... I ride a 54-55 frame and probably would not be able to reach the tops of those brifters comfortably since I am only five foot nine and a half.

If the brifters were positioned properly and if they are comfortable where thay are now that stem would have to be a little shorter to bring them back a little which would make the bike look like it was properly set up.

Chris_W

I don't think enough people realize this. Having a flipped-up stem and a shorter steerer is not only lighter, but is also stiffer than having a longer steerer and a flipped-down stem. Lightweight and stiffness are two things that a lot of people obsess over, and yet they ignore this when choosing how to setup their stem. Instead, a lot of people try to get the ideal look and so go with the longer steerer, more spacers, and a flipped-down stem; this seems pretty foolish to me. The only reason to flip a stem down would be if you otherwise can't get it as low as you want when flipped up with a minimum number of spacers underneath; this is the case for most pro's, which is why their stems are generally flipped down, but is very rarely the case for most regular riders. There are some comments about this somewhere on Sheldon Brown's website and about the history of how the '7' shape of the old stems for threaded headsets came to be, and then people wanted to replicate that look when switching to threadless steerers, but in reality there is no advantage to such a configuration for most people and the look/style comes mostly from historic accident and not from functional design.

Another mistake that most amateur riders make is setting up their bars a lot lower than is comfortable for them because it looks more like the pro's that way. They then spend 95% of the time riding on the hoods and not in the drops because they are not flexible enough to be comfortable in the drops that are too low for them. If those people would just raise their bars by a couple/few cm then they could use the drops more comfortably, and would then really look like a pro because they are riding in the drops most of the time, rather than looking like a dumb amateur who has his bike setup wrongly and so has to stay on the hoods to be comfortable.

Therefore, the setup of the stem shown looks very reasonable and sensible to me. The positioning of the hoods is more of a concern and I would want to know what exactly was the thinking behind setting it up that way, and may consider changing it as described above (rotate hoods down and use shorter stem).