Down to 1/10th of 1mm...

[Ti Designs]

With all the posts about stem length and fitting numbers and calculations on these numbers, I've noticed something - people come up with very exact numbers. "I need a stem length of 12.375cm". Yeh, like anybody is going to notice that 5/1000ths...

The bicycle is a machine that is designed to work with the body, not the other way around. The body (mine at least) changes during the year. I don't have the same back flexability in the winter as I do in the summer. My riding style also changes between seasons, in the winter I'm spinning a smaller gear while in the summer I'm pushing a much bigger gear. My stem length changes with the seasons, even with my full custom geometry frame I run anywhere from a 100mm to a 120mm stem. Front loading stems make it so easy, I don't understand why more people don't do the same.

[zap]

Good point.......

I'm currently riding a 120 on my ti (used exclusivly during winter) bike, but will go back to 130 come spring time.

[Dave]

About the only thing I don't like when switching to a shorter stem for the early season is that it creates knee to arm interference when riding in the drops (at least for me). I tend to spend more time on the brake hoods, or position my hands a bit further back on the hoods and use the tops more in the early season, rather than change stems. I'm not a racer, so achieving an extreme aero position at peak season isn't as important to me as it might be to others.

I agree that people obsess too much about a few millimeters. When changing saddle brands for instance, trying to restore the EXACT height and fore/aft position can be extremely difficult. KOP measurments with a plumb bob aren't very accurate and neither are saddle height measurments. With the wide variation in saddle widths and lengths, measurements from the saddle tip to the handlebars aren't of much value either.