Got a 5 spot and put a 65 mm stem on it and now the front end has gone quite light??

any ideas on how I stop it wanting to lift all the time?

cheers

Steve

The only way really is to get your weight forward a bit, eg if climbing, shuffle forward on the saddle and drop your shoulder height.

Could you not swap around the spacers and the stem so to lower the stem/handlebar? or go back to a longer stem?! And also shift your weight more when climbing etc

Put your thumbs on top of the bars when you’re climbing – it forces your elbows down & in.
Learnt that on a skills course years ago.
Sounds daft, really works 😀

Er, fit a longer stem?
S’not a fashion parade, is it? 🙂

I’m sure you’ll get used to it after a couple of rides.

Move the seat forward and lower the stem ,or put a longer stem on ?

I have to lean quite far forward on steep climbs on my Covert compared with my XC bike. I prefer to stay in the saddle in climbs as much as possible so just have to get my chin close to the bars as possible.

Body position – not only move forward but also stay low on the bike.

i might try lowering the stem by swapping spacers round.

dont really want to put a longer stem on as the riding position feels spot on just a bit light at the front.

steve – sounds simply a matter of keeping body low then

Longer stem and shuffle the saddle forwards?

Would keep the saddle to bars length about the same and the seat angle would put your weight forwards as well.

Turn your hands so that your wrists are a lot lower than usual. This not only forces the body position down too, it also means that when you are really pulling on the bars you are effectively pulling them down towards the floor.

Yeah, but who wants to configure their bike for steep climbs when all you need to do is lean forward? It has to be pretty steep to start lifting the front.

U-turn (or similar) on forks? My E150s have ‘climb’ mode which reduces travel and A2C so lowers the front end which moves my weight forwards. Only rarely use it, most steep climbs I can get away with moving forward on the saddle a bit.

Doing anything to the bars etc won’t do much. The best thing you can do is run more rear compression damping/pro pedal.

Putting the saddle even 15mm further forward can make a huge difference. Is it a layback/setback seatpost?

Drop the wrists. It forces the body forward and down.

The thing is I went from a 120mm stem to a 65 so the steering is always going to be faster!! Perhaps I just need to get used to it!

Also it’s not light or doesn’t get any lighter whilst climbing!

Just feels very easy to get the front wheel to pop even on normal riding

Seriously, try a slightly longer stem. I went to a 50mm and had the same problem, upped it to 70mm and it’s spot on now.

Stop peddling ?

Heavier forks

‘Drop your wrists’ and ‘turn your hands further round’ are both correct but are very subjective terms to get the message across. In purely practical terms, move your thumbs from under to over the top of the bars so your are holding them like a monkey hook. That forces the wrists and arms down without forcing you to think about it. Really works, as rusty said.

Wider bars.

All of the above plus, roll you bar forward so they sweep up more, and lower them by moving a spacer. Why did you change for a shorter stem BTW?