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As long as you run wide bars .
I've never run less than 80 mm and nowadays just bimble about anyhow but I don't really like twitchy front ends ..preferring a steady and stable steering feel.
I may soon be forced to try a very short stem as I'm going to be building up a frame that's a tad long and more than an inline seatpost can sort out ..particularly as I like brooks saddles which have short rails.
I'm hoping the article is correct although the author has made a few debatable claims over the years which has stimulated many an argument in the comments sections.
Here is the article ..what do you think ?
"Steering Masterclass: How Stem Length Affects Your Steering Speed - CyclingAbout" https://www.cyclingabout.com/steering-masterclass-how-stem-length-affects-your-steering-speed/..
The article has some correct points but then it leaps to some incorrect conclusions.
It deems twitchiness to be based on a decrease in hand movement when earlier it correctly referred to the self-centering effect of having your hands in front of the steering axis. It claimed this effect is much smaller than the force from the ground, but as someone who only rides slack MTBs with moderate reach, I know that it has a big effect, even on a bike with as much trail as a DH bike, far larger than the trail on a road bike.
The best article I've read on the subject - https://www.pinkbike.com/news/exploring-the-relationship-between-handlebar-vs-stem-length.html
Here is the article ..what do you think ?
I'd take anything from that guy with a pretty large pinch of salt. It's always very much Dunning-Kruger in action.
I wrote that without even looking at the article, and yeah... "% more twitchy"...
In my opinion (with no pseudo-science to back it up), twitchiness is more a factor of fork trail than stem length.
Here's the video to accompany the Richie Cunningham article.
Meh, so many inputs into this argument, you have fork offset, stem rise and of course body/arm/hand position, probably why trial and error is the best route without having any real basic starting setup.
The article the OP refers to does not consider the biodynamics. That is, how the handlebars move relative to the shoulders. It appears to look at the forward/back movement of the grips, which sort of assumes shoulders at bar width. This is not so far off with road and gravel bars but with wide MTB bars probably needs factoring in.
The article is bobbins
Some one on here explained the tiller effect. It's all to do with the bike decceleratin as you turn the bars. This causes you to push the bars forward. The further your hands are in front of the stem the more self centering.
Of course there are other factors. Some mentioned in the articles above. But to lump stem length and bar width together as if the stem length is just part of leverage is just wrong
Oh the joys of the Internet
well, he can say what he likes.
I put some widish bars on a road rat, with a 90 mm stem. It was horribly twitchy - long stem, wide bars and steep head angle ...