90's Specialized M2 Question Help !
 

Happy new year .. . been experimenting with the M2 feather weigh frames and loving it a, specially the price haha.
Im 5'6, found an 18" frame and will like to run a short stem and wider bars on a larger frame .. u think that make sense or the bike will handle like crap ? so far feels ok,
A 50mm stem its the longest i can use to be comforatbale and not stretch out .
Planning on hitting some single tracks but nothing too crazy ..
i could get a a 16" i guess but im not a fan of 6 inch seatpost and 130mm stems
i also like to go long distances so figured a longer frame will be more confortable
thank u guys !https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...ebcc12f42b.png

Nice bike. If you go shorter than about 90mm stem on those old bikes, they start to get a little twitchy. It is all about perspective though, one person's twitchy is another person's responsive.

The Brooks looks great! I'm a Brooks believer. I got very lucky and had a 2022 Trek Domane SL6 arrive 7 months ahead of schedule. I was trying to love the stock seat, but my Brooks ruined me for any other seat. After giving the factory seat a chance I put the Brooks on and am happy to have my old friend back. I put the Bontrager seat on my Jamis Dragon Pro, but now wish I had a Brooks for that also. My Dragon Pro is more of a studded tire back road winter bike to me. When I got it I thought I'd be a hell bent for leather mountain biker, but it turns out I'm a sissy off road.....

old school greatness enjoy it.
i have same cranks.....loved that era of mtb.

Have an 04 Stumpy M4 HT, also had a Ritchey Tassajera from the era of your stumpy, and a Trek something or other...
The slightly higher stack on the larger frame would be a good thing, if you can make the reach work for you. I found going to a shorter stem (60 in my case) and a wider bar - 720mm with a bit of rise, 25mm, (old bar was 600mm) really helps in the handling when want stability on downhill sections. The new bar/stem setup doesn't really hamper uphill climbing, as long as I focus on keeping weight balanced on both wheels.
I tried a 780 bar, and that was way too wide ! too much arm spread, made it hard to relax grip and bend elbows. And made it really hard to get thru some sections where 'lumber' (or gate posts) are really close together. 780 is almost 31 inches, and binging a steel fence post, because the posts are set real close, is a sure way to slamming into the other side/post.
700/720 seems the sweet spot for me - 5' 9" (long legs and arms, super long... LOL!), 680 would prolly be ok..
also, if you're not against going out of the 'old school' setup, I would highly recommend a dropper post - simple external release lever just under the saddle like this:
Tranz-X Jump Seat Cable-Less Dropper Post
your post is prolly 27.2 ? and if you have about 125 - 130 post showing you'd prolly be able to fit the 100mm dropper.
A HUGE improvement for security and stability on downhill sections... and then instantly back to normal height for normal pedaling.
plus you can pick any drop length, on the fly, depending what feels best for a section. It's a huge improvement to be down 'In' the bike, especially on bumpy downhills...
I'd add a pic, but the Stumpy HT is up in the attic space at the moment - I'm playing with FS bikes at the moment... And no real space to keep the HT handy.
The dropper post is the BEST thing ever for old school HTs ! Can't imagine ever going back to a normal post...
Ride On
Yuri