My baby sister needs a bike, and we are looking at a great deal on a new Brodie Romulus at my lbs. Like lots of women she is short in the torso and long in the legs. So, if we’re going to have a hope in hell of fitting her to the bike, she will need a stubby riser stem. Poking around the internet, i find little warnings here and there about how running a short stem with drops will fuck up your handling. Is this true? Does anyone here have experience with this kind of setup?
I’ve been using an 80mm stem on my crosscheck forever and while the handling isn’t optimal (read, I wouldn’t want to ride it in a crit), it’s nothing to worry about just riding around town.
theres a kid in slc with a bike with a 30-40mm mtb/bmx stem and drops.
i tried riding it, and when your hands are on top by the stem, its kinda twitchy
it seems like a 70mm stem would be alright tho id think
What size frames are you looking at? That will give a range of what stems lengths will result in satisfactory handling.
The great thing about being human, is you can get used to the change in handling really fast.
It might feel twitchy at first, but you’ll unconsciously adapt/correct in no time. I run a 70 with risers (when my back hurts) and a 100 with drops (when it doesn’t) and can only tell the difference for the first block or so.
had a 50mm on my conversion. worked great, ain’t no shame in it.
Zombie, this is just a single bike on discount so there’s no room for tuning in that way.
Thanks for your advice all. This is a good deal (650 cad). Hopefully we can find a choad that will work! The Romulus is a cool frame although the components are rather meh… it’s basically your standard do-everything commuter/ cross frame with big clearance and brazeons. Disc mounts too.
ha so thats how you spell it…i woulda thought “chode”
it’s spelled chode.
thanks for looking that up, i woulda been embarrassed to get that wrong at a future spelling bee
I put a 90mm on, and feel like it looks a bit choad-ish.
But… it feels good man.
^ Same here.
I have Thomson x2 road stems on my track and cross bikes.
Feels good. Looks…good?
personally i think it’s weird and handles funny, but that hasn’t stopped me from using a 70 thru 90 on several setups*. it’s not as stable in a forward sprint in the drops since any amount of sway is more pronounced in the steering.
*the alternative for my size is a smaller frame with lots of bar drop, which i’ve tried and disliked. i’m oddly proportioned; 5’7" with 31.5" inseam and short arms.
I’ve used a 60mm, I prefer shorter stems to longer ones because I don’t like that gyroscope feel you get from a longer stem. Shorter stems give more precise handling imo.
small frames don’t have optimal handling to begin with, if you can try a short stem on the bike before you buy it would say that would be best.
EDIT: never mind, it’s a 650c bike? the handling should be fine then, carry on.
lol. no it’s 650 loonies. I have giant arms and nothing to contribute to this thread.
oh, NM, don’t carry on.