I've just swapped my 90mm for a 70 on my xc bike, and am about to go out on it for the first time. Hoping it will quicken the steering a bit, but not make it too twitchy. I use pretty wide lowrise bars. What sort of stem length do you lot run on your xc bikes then, and am I just trying to be trendy?
100mm stem for xc. Tried an 80mm stem but it was all wrong…too short for climbing and put your weight in wrong place for decending with seat up ass. Should also say i come from a dh background and hadnt ridden anything longer than a 50mm stem before i got my whippet machine.
I had an XC race bike and got into more AM type riding so thought it would make sense to swap out the 100mm stem for a 70mm and to be honest it did improve the feel for jumps and drop ins but having just changed my bike for a Orange P7 with a 90mm stem I realise just how wrong the other bike was. I guess what I'm saying is, it depends on the angles and travel of fork what is going to be right on your bike and don't try to turn an XC bike into an AM bike.
Orang Hutan, I think that's what I'm worried about. The head angle is 71 degrees, so it is only ever going to be a traditional xc hardtail. It's got a bloody long top tube though, so I thought it might make sense.
As it turns out I won't fnd out how it rides tonight anyway, as I just found two broken spokes as I went to take my bike out. I obviously need to keep my wheels on the ground more – and probably stick to a longer stem too.
45mm on Freeride bike
90mm on TT bike
100mm on CX bike
120mm on Road bikes
120mm on XC bikes
But in the end, whatever feels right. The 'shorter the better' camp is all good if it doesn't make you too cramped, and a longer stem does open your chest out to breath better.
Use whatever length gives you the right reach for your intended use.
50mm on the Hemlock, 60mm on the Soul. Got a 70mm and an 80mm lying around for when the urge takes me but I much prefer to sacrifice a little climbing manners for the benefit the rest of the time.
90, 90 and.. er.. 90.
That's on an Enigma Steel hardtail, Kona Kula SS and an 05 Trance with 120mm forks. They've all got pretty much the same top tube length, all about medium size, and I'm about 5ft10. I've found my comfy point and I'm sticking to it.
I did have an 18" inbred which ended up with a 70mm Thomson. Right size, but it used to wheelie up hills. Ripped down them though. Compared to the Enigma it was like riding a bike made of jelly.
Mines a bit of a special one… They were looking for a factory to see if the mass of steel suff could be moved east to open the market a bit.
However, I agree with Jim. The quality just aint the same that they offer. The welding on mine is rough but does the job. I love their ideas about shape and size though.
i find short stems 50-65 mm improve the handling no end on the especially on the descents good for singletrack too, never noticed much of a difference on the climbs so well worth it ime
45mm on the DH bike, 50mm on the XC,DH,AM,hardtail. 90mm on my commuter. There are times I would prefer a few extra mm :-), but I'm now used to the wide bar/short stem thing, plus the ht has a long top tube.
used to run 90mm on most bikes, but have recently gone shorter with a 65mm on my orange five and a 70mm on a turner sultan and these have been fine
but really struggling with the most recent change on my cotic soul, 90mm to 70mm, now my 27" bars feel too narrow, i can't climb any steep technical bits (weights too far back) and long steep descents are horrible, it feels like i'm kissing the front wheel… confused!
