Anyone have a method for determining the best stem length and rise? I’m a casual road cyclist and I feel like I have too much weight on my hands, noticable more on longer rides. I kinda feel like it should be an inch (2-3 cm) shorter, but not sure how rise would impact that. How do I go about finding whats right without trying 4 or 5 stems? Any help is appreciated!
Weight on your hands is more likely to be a saddle issue. Start by lowering your saddle about half an inch to see if it helps.
I’m pretty sure that the saddle height is determined by how long your legs and cranks are, and this has nothing to do with stems.
@rolling_resistance @PlantJam that’s true to an extent, but having your saddle too high can transfer weight to your hands, and your ideal saddle height isn’t necessarily what the standard calculations say it should be. mine isn’t, because of historic back issues: it’s about 15mm lower
I would argue that standard calculations are all almost entirely useless. This (painfully long) article from Steve Hoggins talks about seat setback for road bikes: https://www.stevehoggbikefitting.com/bikefit/2011/05/seat-set-back-for-road-bikes/
Saddles being too high is a very common fit issue. Steve Hoggins has a ton of great information on his site about bike fits. For me personally, my saddle being too high felt right for my legs, but resulted in too much weight on my hands.
Part of the frustration of diy bike fitting is there really aren’t that many symptoms. We only have three contact points to feel wrong, but way more things to possibly adjust. For me, the solution to my hand weight problem was a new bike one size smaller.
Here’s the article about seat height: https://www.stevehoggbikefitting.com/bikefit/2011/02/seat-height-how-hard-can-it-be/