Pitfalls of reducing stem length ?

Pawko said:

I want to reduce my bikes stem length from 110 mm down to 90 mm to reduce the reach required when using my aero bars ( syntace streamliner mediums) a touch . I have some concerns this might make the steering a bit twitchy . Is this easily adapted to or is there a fundemental problem with going that much shorter that will make this setup a pain in the butt , not to mention a waste of my "hard earned"

Shortening your stem will make the steering "more responsive". Assuming your position on the aero pads remains the same it will also raise your position, making you less aero.

Of course if the longer stem is less comfortable and reduces your power output....

I've just dropped my existing stem 22mm and still have a 5mm spacer left under the stem , also , the stem intend to buy will have a touch more drop than the original . As for "mor responsive steering" , I assume you feel that's a plus , I can see myself " high siding it" on low speed U turns if I'm not careful until I get the hang of it.

rollers said:

Assuming your position on the aero pads remains the same it will also raise your position, making you less aero.

..

Not enough to matter...LOL

Pawko said:

I've just dropped my existing stem 22mm and still have a 5mm spacer left under the stem , also , the stem intend to buy will have a touch more drop than the original . As for "mor responsive steering" , I assume you feel that's a plus , I can see myself " high siding it" on low speed U turns if I'm not careful until I get the hang of it.

You may not even notice the differenct. Just DO IT if it's what it takes to get proper fit.

It sounds like you won't sacrifice aero position then. The increased angle will shorten reach just a bit more than the 20mm difference in stems, which may also serve your purpose.

By "more responsive" I really only meant it as a euphemism to "twitchy". Whether it's a plus or not is up to the rider. I like my 100mm stem for comfort reasons as well as for responsiveness. It's just right for me. Others who have tried my rig say it's way too twitchy for their tastes.

It seems you've thought this through pretty well. Let us know how the shorter stem works out for you.

Pawko said:

I want to reduce my bikes stem length from 110 mm down to 90 mm to reduce the reach required when using my aero bars ( syntace streamliner mediums) a touch . I have some concerns this might make the steering a bit twitchy . Is this easily adapted to or is there a fundemental problem with going that much shorter that will make this setup a pain in the butt , not to mention a waste of my "hard earned"

Make sure you've got the knee clearance to go 2cm shorter. It really, really hurts when you hit your knee on the back of the armrests when standing on a climb.

When I first put aerobars on my bike, I found that I had to increase stem length from 110mm to 120mm to give enough knee clearance. But that increased the reach too much for the aero position. So I went with size small instead of medium for the clip-ons (Syntace) to shorten the reach.