Taller Stem Needed
12-24-17, 09:23 AM
#26
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Next time I submit photos I will be sure to wear shorts so my knees show!
12-24-17, 03:13 PM
#27
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Essentially you can go up until hip rocking rubs your undercarriage raw, and can go low until insufficient knee straightening causes knee pain which indicates potential cartilage damage.
You can go with a taller stem. Don’t raise your stem above where the insertion limit becomes visible at the top of the headset. With such a small frame and tiny head tube, a taller stem may show something called “giraffe effect.” This is ugly, but not dangerous. Once you can get the bars up level, you can think about whether your stem extension needs to be changed, and if your saddle lets your Wright distribution be what it needs to be. I’d suggest looking for a used Nitto Technomic Deluxe, which will give you about 5 cm more bar elevation. A Technomic will go a lot higher, but I think that will be too much if your stenosis is under control.
I strongly suspect you should have a larger frame.
You can go with a taller stem. Don’t raise your stem above where the insertion limit becomes visible at the top of the headset. With such a small frame and tiny head tube, a taller stem may show something called “giraffe effect.” This is ugly, but not dangerous. Once you can get the bars up level, you can think about whether your stem extension needs to be changed, and if your saddle lets your Wright distribution be what it needs to be. I’d suggest looking for a used Nitto Technomic Deluxe, which will give you about 5 cm more bar elevation. A Technomic will go a lot higher, but I think that will be too much if your stenosis is under control.
I strongly suspect you should have a larger frame.
Last edited by Road Fan; 12-24-17 at 03:26 PM.
12-26-17, 04:18 PM
#28
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Essentially you can go up until hip rocking rubs your undercarriage raw, and can go low until insufficient knee straightening causes knee pain which indicates potential cartilage damage.
You can go with a taller stem. Don’t raise your stem above where the insertion limit becomes visible at the top of the headset. With such a small frame and tiny head tube, a taller stem may show something called “giraffe effect.” This is ugly, but not dangerous. Once you can get the bars up level, you can think about whether your stem extension needs to be changed, and if your saddle lets your Wright distribution be what it needs to be. I’d suggest looking for a used Nitto Technomic Deluxe, which will give you about 5 cm more bar elevation. A Technomic will go a lot higher, but I think that will be too much if your stenosis is under control.
I strongly suspect you should have a larger frame.
You can go with a taller stem. Don’t raise your stem above where the insertion limit becomes visible at the top of the headset. With such a small frame and tiny head tube, a taller stem may show something called “giraffe effect.” This is ugly, but not dangerous. Once you can get the bars up level, you can think about whether your stem extension needs to be changed, and if your saddle lets your Wright distribution be what it needs to be. I’d suggest looking for a used Nitto Technomic Deluxe, which will give you about 5 cm more bar elevation. A Technomic will go a lot higher, but I think that will be too much if your stenosis is under control.
I strongly suspect you should have a larger frame.
I think I got it sold to my brother (same inseam/longer torso on him)
Got my 54cm track bike out to work on recently- this one “feels” better as is but should be easier to dial in by virtue of having a threadless headset ALSO, my little brother just gave me a 58cm bianchi in trade for swapping out his BB/crankset:
12-26-17, 07:33 PM
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You may want to try to get in person fit advise but I'm not sure you should sell just yet based on your pics sitting on the bike or buy a stem just yet. The important thing is to avoid bike fit hell by self fitting, but if you want to try, mark baseline for everything with a sharpie or tape and start going for rides and moving 1 thing at a time. You look to be a tad high on the seat as-is from what I can tell, it is better to be slightly low than too high--especially if you have back issues, the higher you are, the more you will recruit back muscles into your pedaling, those should be used for stabilizing. Mark baseline with a sharpie, and move the seat back and down 3 mm at a time, go for a ride (10-20 miles) and write down your observations such as sliding forward/aft on the saddle, knee/back comfort, ease of spinning and flat and hill power, wrist comfort etc, eventually you'll find where you should be for the saddle based on how you peddle, for a single speed, knee generally ends up a little aft of spindle, you'll get more power at the expense of cadence there and the more weight over the back wheel, the less on the hands, work on rotating at the pelvis as other have said.
Once you get seat dialed in, you then worry about setting your bar position. First you find reach and stem height as well as bar rotation for comfort in the drops. You should be able to ride in the drops for 30 minutes with relative comfort, if you can't do that once your saddle is dialed in, then start looking at stems. One you get saddle and drops set, you then set the brake hoods, ride for a while, and then once your confident, wrap.
It's going to be a PITA to try to swap stems with quills because of all the work to remove quills that don't have removable face plates, but a nitto technomatic with 100 mm reach is probably a safe starting point.
Once you get seat dialed in, you then worry about setting your bar position. First you find reach and stem height as well as bar rotation for comfort in the drops. You should be able to ride in the drops for 30 minutes with relative comfort, if you can't do that once your saddle is dialed in, then start looking at stems. One you get saddle and drops set, you then set the brake hoods, ride for a while, and then once your confident, wrap.
It's going to be a PITA to try to swap stems with quills because of all the work to remove quills that don't have removable face plates, but a nitto technomatic with 100 mm reach is probably a safe starting point.
12-26-17, 08:18 PM
#30
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You may want to try to get in person fit advise but I'm not sure you should sell just yet based on your pics sitting on the bike or buy a stem just yet. The important thing is to avoid bike fit hell by self fitting, but if you want to try, mark baseline for everything with a sharpie or tape and start going for rides and moving 1 thing at a time. You look to be a tad high on the seat as-is from what I can tell, it is better to be slightly low than too high--especially if you have back issues, the higher you are, the more you will recruit back muscles into your pedaling, those should be used for stabilizing. Mark baseline with a sharpie, and move the seat back and down 3 mm at a time, go for a ride (10-20 miles) and write down your observations such as sliding forward/aft on the saddle, knee/back comfort, ease of spinning and flat and hill power, wrist comfort etc, eventually you'll find where you should be for the saddle based on how you peddle, for a single speed, knee generally ends up a little aft of spindle, you'll get more power at the expense of cadence there and the more weight over the back wheel, the less on the hands, work on rotating at the pelvis as other have said.
Once you get seat dialed in, you then worry about setting your bar position. First you find reach and stem height as well as bar rotation for comfort in the drops. You should be able to ride in the drops for 30 minutes with relative comfort, if you can't do that once your saddle is dialed in, then start looking at stems. One you get saddle and drops set, you then set the brake hoods, ride for a while, and then once your confident, wrap.
It's going to be a PITA to try to swap stems with quills because of all the work to remove quills that don't have removable face plates, but a nitto technomatic with 100 mm reach is probably a safe starting point.
Once you get seat dialed in, you then worry about setting your bar position. First you find reach and stem height as well as bar rotation for comfort in the drops. You should be able to ride in the drops for 30 minutes with relative comfort, if you can't do that once your saddle is dialed in, then start looking at stems. One you get saddle and drops set, you then set the brake hoods, ride for a while, and then once your confident, wrap.
It's going to be a PITA to try to swap stems with quills because of all the work to remove quills that don't have removable face plates, but a nitto technomatic with 100 mm reach is probably a safe starting point.
This is GREAT advice that I will carry forward to my future builds!
The choice to sell was not necessarily based on fit, more just getting funds to fix up my next bike; then just today my little brother gave me another frame for some work I did for him, so I have to turn over the inventory, so to speak!
I love the idea of changing things one thing at a time and making incremental changes, it will definitely be easier to put down some miles when the snow melts.
I think for my next bike I am going to use an online fit calculator to put things together then I will make small changes from there. I will say, my taller frame one the black bike pictured in this thread "feels" closer to "right" as it is. I will measure myself and maybe flip the stem but it definitely feels like the frame is closer to my size the way it is.
12-29-17, 07:47 PM
#31
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Essentially you can go up until hip rocking rubs your undercarriage raw, and can go low until insufficient knee straightening causes knee pain which indicates potential cartilage damage.
You can go with a taller stem. Don’t raise your stem above where the insertion limit becomes visible at the top of the headset. With such a small frame and tiny head tube, a taller stem may show something called “giraffe effect.” This is ugly, but not dangerous. Once you can get the bars up level, you can think about whether your stem extension needs to be changed, and if your saddle lets your Wright distribution be what it needs to be. I’d suggest looking for a used Nitto Technomic Deluxe, which will give you about 5 cm more bar elevation. A Technomic will go a lot higher, but I think that will be too much if your stenosis is under control.
I strongly suspect you should have a larger frame.
You can go with a taller stem. Don’t raise your stem above where the insertion limit becomes visible at the top of the headset. With such a small frame and tiny head tube, a taller stem may show something called “giraffe effect.” This is ugly, but not dangerous. Once you can get the bars up level, you can think about whether your stem extension needs to be changed, and if your saddle lets your Wright distribution be what it needs to be. I’d suggest looking for a used Nitto Technomic Deluxe, which will give you about 5 cm more bar elevation. A Technomic will go a lot higher, but I think that will be too much if your stenosis is under control.
I strongly suspect you should have a larger frame.
Sold the red Nishiki to my brother and dug out my really cool track bike!
It's 5cm taller but the top tube is a tad shorter than the Nishiki
Here it is right after I wrapped the bars and flipped over the stem today:
12-30-17, 03:05 PM
#32
Banned
Stem raiser in its simplest form is a tube with a wedge in the bottom..
half way up it flares.. the top inside is the bottom outside diameter.. so, you take the stem out of the fork,
put the riser in then put the stem in the top of the riser.. then replace all the cables to reach the new altitude.
(Prettier, costs more.. Nitto Technomic a stem with a long quill shaft. still going to need new cables though..
...
half way up it flares.. the top inside is the bottom outside diameter.. so, you take the stem out of the fork,
put the riser in then put the stem in the top of the riser.. then replace all the cables to reach the new altitude.
(Prettier, costs more.. Nitto Technomic a stem with a long quill shaft. still going to need new cables though..
...
12-30-17, 03:56 PM
#33
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Stem raiser in its simplest form is a tube with a wedge in the bottom..
half way up it flares.. the top inside is the bottom outside diameter.. so, you take the stem out of the fork,
put the riser in then put the stem in the top of the riser.. then replace all the cables to reach the new altitude.
(Prettier, costs more.. Nitto Technomic a stem with a long quill shaft. still going to need new cables though..
...
half way up it flares.. the top inside is the bottom outside diameter.. so, you take the stem out of the fork,
put the riser in then put the stem in the top of the riser.. then replace all the cables to reach the new altitude.
(Prettier, costs more.. Nitto Technomic a stem with a long quill shaft. still going to need new cables though..
...
BOB! I think that's BRILLIANT! It sounds like something I can make at home with just a saw and an extra stem!
That said, I have the red bike with the threaded headset sold to my older brother, the black one is threadless, that's the stock stem, pretty long at 110mm but I flipped it over prior to snapping the pick and the geometry feels damn good
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