reroll

I searched online for advise about stem lengths and what I thought would be simple turned out to be complicated. I am a commuter, grocery getter and occasional tourist, but learned a lot about stem lengths by reading what serious uphill, downhill and trail MTB riders had to say about theirs, recommended reading.

The easiest way to find a stem's length would be criticized by 'experts' but it shows up in nearly every stem length discussion I have seen and goes with what riders have found works best for them, that there is a correlation between stem length and fork offset, that the center-to-center length of a stem should be approximately equal to the length of a fork's offset, which produces a neutral starting point, parallel to the fork's rotational axis, and can be modified from there, longer or shorter. The size and type of handlebar could call for lengthening or shortening the stem, but even then many riders still stay close to their fork's neutral starting point. YMMV

Edit: Another bit of advise about stems, a weak stem can suddenly become very dangerous and the advise is to stay away from cast alloy stems and to instead go with stronger and more reliable 2D and 3D forged alloy stems.