I ride a rigid steel mountain bike in gravel bike guise (so a fair bit of on road riding) which I use for lots of totally unskilled riding about.

The grips are a couple of CM lower that the saddle giving a decent attack position and this has worked well in all situations.

Recently though I’ve started getting a bit of neck pain (it’s probably just age, I’ll be 50 at the end of the year) and I’m wondering about just nudging the ride position up a bit.

The obvious solution would simply be to raise the bars slightly but I could also shorten the reach a little instead.

I’ve never really understood the finer points of geometry, I just tweak things until they feel about right so I’m not sure what to expect from a shorter stem (although short stems seem to be in fashion).

I’m currently riding an 80mm 0? rise stem and a 5mm riser bar (so almost flat). What would I notice if I bought a 70mm stem?

http://yojimg.net/bike/web_tools/stem.php

Knock yourself out with different alternative stem lengths/angles compared to current. 😉

If you’re looking for a high rise stem, PX do some for ~£20 currently (they have been cheaper I think, shock horror). http://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/STPX3DF/planet-x-superlight-team-3d-forged-stem

Thanks for the pointers, but no 70mm ones in the Planet X range. I guess that the simplest option would be to buy something cheap and try it out before committing to something nice like a Thomson.