I bought a Leader 736-R a couple of months ago as a graduation present for myself. Before I could even build it up I went into surgery for my jaw and spent the rest of the summer recovering and putting weight back on. I built the bike up, but it has never fit, always to long. Well I just sat the bike with a ruler and realized I need to shave about 3cm off of the stem. My current stem is 100mm.

So am I going to notice any differences with a 70mm stem? It sounds awfully short to me and I've heard that handling can get whippy at speed with a short stem. Harder to hold a line when climbing and descending becomes more wobbly. Also I've heard that the steering will feel "faster". Anybody have any experience?

I'm going to change the stem because otherwise the frame won't fit and I like it a lot aside from having to stretch way out in order to get on the hoods. I mostly want to know what I can expect from riding a shorter stem, if any change at all.

Shorter will probably be a lot more "twitchy", and prone to causing the situation you cite. If it were me, I may consider one not so short, and flipping it up to help your reach. If you must, maybe a stem with high degree of drop/raise. But, at this point, you really may want to consider a pro fitting with gear suggestion. They may/should even offer to fit with the new stem and switch it out until you are fit properly and comfortable.

I have ridden bikes with 120mm stems and as short as 60mm. If there was any danger or twichiness that people refer too they would not sell stems that short.

Most people who say that a bike with that short of a stem have never ridden a bike with a stem that short, as they think it will be twitchy because they read it somewhere on the internet. Will it feel different, maybe. Will it be dangerous, no.

Anyway, making your stem shorter might not necessarily be the answer. More than likely you have a lot of saddle to bar drop. By that I mean your bars are a lot lower than the top of your saddle. If this is the case making your stem shorter will not solve the problem as the bar may actually get lower if you have any rise in your stem.

You should try raising the bars to at least the height of the saddle. This will bring the bars a little closer to you and will effectively shorten the reach, because as the bars get higher they retreat back because of the head tube angle and also because they are just getting closer to your shoulders. This may actuall necesitate getting a longer stem.

As you get fitter and lose the weight, you can then begin to lower the bars to your liking.

How much bar drop do you have?

I have ridden bikes with 120mm stems and as short as 60mm. If there was any danger or twichiness that people refer too they would not sell stems that short.

Most people who say that a bike with that short of a stem have never ridden a bike with a stem that short, as they think it will be twitchy because they read it somewhere on the internet. Will it feel different, maybe. Will it be dangerous, no.


This is all true. Consider: Probably the most stable handling bikes are are mountain bikes for downhill racing - and they have to be, for good reason. But these bikes typically use very short stems (50mm isn't uncommon), and often even have back swept handlebars, reducing the effect stem length further. And yet, these bikes are very stable.

But, you may say, DH MTBs have a lot of other design characteristics that make them more stable (like long wheelbases, long front centers, shallow head angles, etc.). This is all true, and exactly to the point - there are many more important factors affecting bicycle stability than just stem length.

On the other side of the coin, a sudden change in stem length can change the way a bike 'feels' to the rider. But this is usually just a perception/sensation/expectation issue. Within a short time, a rider will adapt to the new feel of the bike, and the bike will feel just as stable as before.

While some cognisanti will wax profound about how a few millimeters here and there can make a big difference in bike handling, the reality is that people have successfully ridden bikes of a variety of sizes and shape for decades. The most important factor is that it fits the rider, not whether the stem is 90mm instead of 110mm.

I couldn't have said it better myself Mark McM.

Stem length doesn't make any difference in handling.