Mountain Bike Stem Length – What is yours?
Mountain bike stem lengths vary from rider to rider and bike to bike. The length of your mountain bike stem is also one of those components that can drastically alter how your mountain bike performs on the trail. Typically, a longer mountain bike stem will make your bike climb easier and turn quicker, but this comes at the expense of some stability on the long downhills and when your tires leave the ground. Shorter mountain bike stems make your bike more stable on the downhills and make your steering less twitchy and more predictable, but this comes at the expense of your mountain bikes climbing stability. As I look around the various trailheads that I frequent, I can see there are basically two camps when it comes to mountain biking stems, those that experiment with different lengths and those that use whatever the hell came on their bike!
Mountain Bike Stem Length – What is yours?
Time for another survey to see what you guys are doing with your mountain bikes. Two simple questions again…what stem length are you running and did you come to that length by testing or just making due with what you have?
Now…there is a trend to this question that should be addressed…the type of bike you are riding can have a direct affect on the length of your stem (DH vs. XC race is a great example), but due to the fact that most of you are riding trailbikes due to a recent survey…I think we can ask these questions without asking what bike you are riding at this time. If you want to expand on the bike and why you use a particular length…hit up the comments section at the bottom of this article and tell us why you made your choice.
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Tags: mountain bike component, poll, stem
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Going from a 110 mm to 90 mm stem made the steering on my Trance X noticeably faster. The new, wider handlebars I installed shortly there after counteracted the increased steering twitchiness. On a trail bike, where ergonomics are important for efficient pedaling, the stem length should be a function your body geometry on the bike. Meaning, on a properly sized frame with the seat position dialed in, the stem length should be be quite obvious. Handlebar width will lengthen/shorten your effective stem length but not a whole lot.
My old Stumpjumper can with a 90mm, 10degree rise and it was fine. When I switched over to the Nomad it came with a 100 stem with a slight rise (I forget what). With the 100 on climbs, my rear wheel would loose traction and I had to constantly shift my weight towards the rear. Once I the 90mm came into play, all was good. I did the same on my Chameleon since the top tube was a little longer than my Nomad, but now I’m sampling with a 70mm stem. Not too good, the front wanders too much on steep climbs. 90mm seems like a good all rounder for me. Climbs are perfect, and descents are stable.
I went from 100mm to 70mm on my monocog flight and it handles much better now. I also went from 70 to 50mm on my giant ac with the same results. Climbing is still good on both bikes, but they handle the steep down hills better.
@911
I think that an article on stem length and riding habits will be very good. it will also triger lots of discussion
I believe that is a subject that is often neglected but leads to radical changes in bike fit and riding “window” of a bike.
One more time this applies differently in XC bikes, trail bikes, enduro bikes, dh and FR bikes as well as road bikes
I currently have a 115mm stem, not on your survey but if I were to replace it I’d go 110mm not 120mm. I prefer to be on 90-100mm stems, but the Geometry of my bike doesn’t allow for that and a comfortable ride at the same time. Current trends are to the 70-90mm stem length, but at 6′3″ there are very few frames out there that have a long enough top tube for me to run a truly short stem. Most frame manufacturers (let’s leave bike mfg out of the picture) are topping out around 24.5in eff.TT for trail bikes in the stock sizes. If you are my size and built like an orangutan then that necessitates the use of a traditional xc length stem. The only hard part is finding a burly and long stem. They are few and far between. Currently using an easton vice.
Sorry, but this is a kind of silly question. Stem length has so many different reasons for being run at a different length that the results are useless as anything more than mere trivia. How about a question asking people if they run 2 or 3 chainrings on their geared XC bike and why? My 2 cents.
Scott
Different stem lengths drastically change how the same bike with the same components reacts with the trail. If you put on a 70mm stem and then switch to a 110mm stem…you are going to notice that the bike handles much differently on both climbs and descents. That is the reason behind asking the question and I was also interested to see if riders change their stems from stock as it also changes the fit of the bike.
And I use dual ring setups on everything but XC race bikes (triple) and DH rigs (single)
“a longer mountain bike stem will make your bike… turn quicker”
>This goes against logic, and what I’ve learned through the years. The farther your bar from the steering axis is, the slower your steering will be. Wider bars would somewhat offset the quicker steering of shorter stems.
Israel,
It has to do with where your weight is in relation to the front axle. The farther forward you are on the bike, the easier the bike turns (also gives that twitchy feeling to the front end on long descents and jumps). The flip side is that shorter stems can wander on climbs because your weight is farther back behind the front axle. You are also able to turn the front end of the mountain bike easier with longer stems due to the increased leverage on the steerer tube. While you are moving your hands farther across the axis…it is easier than with shorter stems.
I’m with Scott – Three or two chain rings – 2 x 9 with 50 and 29 teeth respectively – the weight is about the same as a three ring set up;however, how is the gear ratio working out with a 11/32 or 12/34 rear cassette?
Stem length – I climb hills with obstacles going up – I like to use a 90mm to lighten the front to help go over them and float over sand on the flats – also between a large and medium frame – and that size just works out for me.
I built my 29er with a 110mm stem to primarily to get the stretched out feel. I really did not notice the effect on steering because “that was just the way the bike rode”.
I recently switched my 26er hard tail over to a 110. I am 6′1″ 185 lbs riding an 18″ bike so I always felt the cockpit was just a little small, but I wanted the control when I hit the tight single track. With this application I immediately noticed how twitchy the steering changed on the bike first time out and I had the tendency to oversteer turns. I also dropped the rise on the bars, opting for the low rise Easton so I violated the basic rules of scientific experimentation changeing 2 variables at the same time. I think I am getting a better handle on the bikes characteristics each time out. Thanks for putting the poll together its a great way to see how everyones experience comestogether on specific issues.
As a professional cross country racer I have always battled between smaller frame and longer stem or larger frame and shorter stem. This year I opted for the slightly larger frame (18 inch) and a 100 mm stem with my 680mm lo-rise bars. The shorter stems gives me much more predictable handling in both the tight techy stuff and the long sustained downhills. It also allows me to keep my weight back far easier for the stand up hammer fest climbs typically found on the cross country circuits.
Excellent site, keep up the good work
I have a giant VT Large. It has easton EA50 110mm stem with race face low rise 660mm bars. These are matched to Rock shox 130mm revelations with a thompson layback post. All works fine but in some downhill techie sections it can feel vague & specifically on loose downhill gravel. I am thinking of a change to 90 or 100mm stem with 710mm race face low rise bars. As shorter stems & wider bars are considered to give better stability. I think the solution is to buy two stems (90 & 100) the bars can be cut down if too wide. All comments appreciated. Great site by the way. Cheers SIMON