I’ve got a 2007 stumpy pro running stock stem and bars. I’m thinking of changing to a shorter (50mm) stem and wider bars (730mm). Stock gear is 640mm bars and 100mm stem

I’ve read online that the steering can get twitchy with such a short stem on a bike with 71 degree head angle. Is this true?

I’ve also seen that a shorter stem can affect the way the bike feels, in terms of cockpit length. Will going shorter/ wider cause many issues?

Before I take the plunge I’d like a few opinions on:

Whether a shorter stem is a good option? Or whether I’m likely to have problems.

What stem/bars would you recommend?

I’m currently looking at nukeproof and hope stems and raceface sixc carbon bars. Are there other reasonably priced alternatives that are good? I’ve seen easton mentioned a few times.

I mainly ride trails.

Is you having issues with a 100mm stem or just tinkering? I swapped the stem to a 50mm on a 2005 FSR, found it to be an improvement with no twitchy side-effects. It took a couple of rides to get used to it but it was clearly better over fast / rough terrain.

Maybe check whether you’ve got room to move yr saddle back if you’re concerned about riding position. No one on a forum can tell you how it’ll change the feel of the bike – buy a cheap stem and play around with the bike to find what works.

Thanks for the reply, much appreciated.

Just tinkering really. I’ve had the bike for a few months and am finding the bars a bit narrow for the way i like to ride. Convention seems to say that you shorten the stem as you widen the bars so looking at doing both at the same time.

Plenty of room for the saddle to go back so shouldn’t encounter any issues.

So are most stems much of a muchness? Presumably as long as it fits the steerer and bars is just down to taste and budget?

I ran mine at 70mm with 680 bars and while it improved things generally, it did make it a lot twitchier and longer climbs especially techy ones I notice the difference. I wouldn’t personally go as low as 50mm, but if you hunt merlin etc you can pick up cheapy race face ones for 10-20 quid to test it out, I bought a few sizes and settled on 70mm.

*My experience is on a large btw.

So are most stems much of a muchness?

Well I’ve never seen a stem break, only get damaged by someone overtightening bolts, so unless you’re weight-watching or in need of high-performance colours I’d say they’re a muchness. So long as the stack height is the same as the stem you’re taking off (just in case you don’t have much steerer, covering myself here but shouldn’t be an issue if you’re altering a bike with it’s orignal componentry, but some stems do clamp in different places).

Can you borrow a stem to try for a week or so ?

With that much of a drop in length, I’d borrow or buy a cheap stem as it will make a very noticeable difference and you might well find it too twitchy. Once happy with it then buy a nice one.

I have a more modern Stumpy which aren’t as steep and switch between 70mm and 90mm depending on what/ where I’m riding – the difference is quite noticeable.
maybe get a 70mm stem off ebay for a fiver/ tenner and see how it feels.
stems are cheap on eBay if you don’t want a Thomson.

Thanks for all the responses 😀

I had a chat with the LBS and they initially recommended a 70mm but they also said that the older stumpies are good with 50mm stems too.

Think i’ll try and pick up a couple of shorter ones from ebay to have a go with. As people have pointed out above, there’s no point buying an expensive stem and finding out it’s too short.

there’s no point buying an expensive stem and finding out it’s too short.

Fixed 🙂

I did a similar thing, I have a racy 2008 HT that came with a 110mm stem and 580 flat bars. No longer needed for racing so I tried out a 680 riser bar and 70 stem, its ace, just feels that bit more relaxed. I got one of the basic superstar stems as a trial (ebay £5) but still have it on the bike, there is no noticeable flex and it is lighter than most costing 10x more. As above it might not be as strong as others but I have never seen a broken stem.