80 mm stems

Quoted message said:

...do they exist? Ideally, this would be a Felt ST-22 Stem but whatever
fits.

Ritchey has them.

A lot of frame builders will make hard to find sizes like that too.

Quoted message said:

...do they exist? Ideally, this would be a Felt ST-22 Stem but whatever
fits.

I don't know about Felt stems, but Bontrager has 80mm, 26.0 & 31.8, in 7 &
17 degree rises. I'm sure that Dimension (QBP house brand) has them too.
Shouldn't be tough to find.

--Mike Jacoubowsky
Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReaction.com
Redwood City & Los Altos, CA USA

Thank you all. Looks like 31.8-80 ones might be easier to find.

As a followup... I found a Ritchey Pro stem, 31.8 - 80 mm, which looks
right, but I am not sure if it will fit in the place of my old Felt
one. Can anyone tell, by looking at the Felt stem and the Ritchey stem,
whether they are interchangeable (I am concerned about the angle rise)
Sorry for this I am new to roadbiking.

http://www.feltracing.com/2005_components/05_st21_stem.html...
http://www.excelsports.com/wdisplay.asp?description=Stem+New+Pro+Road

Mike, do you have them in stock? I am in Menlo Park. Also, do you do
bike fitting at your store? This is for my wife - she just got a new
Felt F60. Nice bike, but a lot should be done in terms of fitting.

Quoted message said:

Mike, do you have them in stock? I am in Menlo Park. Also, do you do
bike fitting at your store? This is for my wife - she just got a new
Felt F60. Nice bike, but a lot should be done in terms of fitting.

Don't know if I've got them in stock, as I'm not at the shop right now. If
we don't have them, we will by the end of the week, as we just dropped a
fairly large order of stems a few days ago, and they should be arriving
shortly.

Regarding fittings, at the moment we're a bit backed up, due to the sudden
onset (and hopefully continuing!!!) decent weather. Usually the shop that
sells the bike provided fit services; this wasn't the case where she got it?
I'd check into that a bit more before going elsewhere, since they probably
have some idea of why she fits a given size etc., and it reduces finger
pointing if there are difficulties.

I just checked the F60 geometry chart; it's pretty easy to see why many
women would need a pretty short stem, as they've got rather long top tubes,
particularly for the 54cm & smaller sizes. This is especially unusual given
that they've got pretty steep seat tubes (74.5 degrees on 54cm).

Guess I should ask how tall she is, which frame size she has, and how it's
going to be used?

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReactionBicycles.com

Mike, thank you for responding. She is 5"6, and it's a 54 cm F60. She
currently has a 90 mm stem, and when she is riding I can see her
reaching a bit far. Also, she complains about pain in the back, pain in
the neck, and, well, up there (like her legs are rubbing againts the
nose of the seat). Given, she's been on a roadbike only 4 times. Still,
I don't think the 25 mile ride like we did yesterday (parked in La
Honda, then Piscadero-Stage-84-LaHonda) should have felt that
uncomfortable. 50 miles I would understand.

We got the bike in Menlo Park. They gave us a great deal for the 2004
F60, but they did not have a trainer to put the bike on...

Quoted message said:

Mike, thank you for responding. She is 5"6, and it's a 54 cm F60. She
currently has a 90 mm stem, and when she is riding I can see her
reaching a bit far. Also, she complains about pain in the back, pain in
the neck, and, well, up there (like her legs are rubbing againts the
nose of the seat). Given, she's been on a roadbike only 4 times. Still,
I don't think the 25 mile ride like we did yesterday (parked in La
Honda, then Piscadero-Stage-84-LaHonda) should have felt that
uncomfortable. 50 miles I would understand.

We got the bike in Menlo Park. They gave us a great deal for the 2004
F60, but they did not have a trainer to put the bike on...

At 5'6" and a 54cm frame, she probably needs a taller stem, not just shorter
forward reach, especially if she hasn't ridden much (and is having saddle
issues "up there"😉. Since that bike doesn't have a very high front end,
don't be surprised if you need to get something pretty darned tall; a 17
degree might not be enough. 25 degree, possibly even 40 might be
appropriate. It won't look like what you & I might be riding, but you've got
to throw those notions out the window, especially if she has longer legs and
shorter arms & torso (fairly typical for women).

If the saddle's in the right place, how much drop do you have to the bars?
This can be found by measuring the distance from top of saddle to ground,
and subtracting from that the top of bar to ground measurement. For women,
sometimes you need to go nearly level to get comfortable (not for everyone,
her mileage may vary). That particular Felt is not designed with women in
mind (as I mentioned previously, it's got a pretty long top tube, and you
can't "cheat" by moving the seat forward because it's already got a pretty
steep seat tube), so short forward reach and tall are possibly the order of
the day. Also, make sure the handlebar has a very shallow forward reach.
Some bikes have very long forward reaches (the Bontrager Flat Top aluminum
bars come to mind), and those definitely complicate fit issues.

Fit is everything on a road bike, which is why it might be best to address
these issues at the shop you got it from, just in case it turns out that
it's difficult to get things worked out properly on that particular frame.
If she can't be made comfortable, it doesn't matter how good a deal it is.

--Mike Jacoubowsky
Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReaction.com
Redwood City & Los Altos, CA USA

Mike - I was thinking about the drop issue, too, but, I figured, all
raod bikes are like that. right now the seat and the bars are
definitely not level... by eye, I'd say, at least a 2 inch drop. I
haven't seen 40 deg stems, but if you're saying they exist, I'll keep
looking.