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Im 6ft tall and ride an extra large bionicon evo, with a top tube of 623mm and a reach of 442, the bike climbs very well and I dont feel streched out at all but on the downs I do get a lot of pain in the palms of my hands making me think there is to much pressure on my hands, so im thinking of changing the current 80mm stem to a 65mm stem to see if this solves the problem, just hoping it wont change the bike to much, any one else had this problem,how long will it take to get over it feeling strange, I dont want to fit it ride down the road and think it was a mistake
thanks
craig
buy a cheapo 2nd hand one to have a go first, there's loads on ebay.
If you hands are sore, is your saddle too high? or bar too low?
I tried looking but I cant find any that will fit 35mm bars, no I have my saddle right down when going down hill, it does feel like im to far forward on the downs, but feels great going up hill
bloody hell I just checked ebay and your right there is plenty I will see what I can pick up and give it a try
I made that same swap recently, but the only difference is slightly better handling on slow/technical sections.
I can't see how such a small change would reduce any sort of ride-induced pain. If your position is wrong on a frame, you really need to change it.
You can also reduce the reach by fitting riser bars with more back-sweep angle.
Maybe your front end is too low, and you've got too much weight over the bars ? I'm only saying from my own experience, but on my MTBs, my weight doesn't rest over the bars. So on heavy downhills, the only pain I get is from squeezing the bar-grips and brake levers. If anything, I'm more likely to get sore hands from riding my road bike, compared to something with front suspension.....talking of which, is your front shock working OK ?
going from an 80mm stem down to 65mm stem, much differance [sic]
15mm off the top of my head.
*try the veal, I'm here all week etc.
always found that bar sweep and height helped with comfort for just riding, that was before everyone was focused on shorter stem length tho.
Biggest improvement for me re descending hand fatigue was going on a course which predominately focused on centre of mass over the peddles all the time, so that 'in theory' if you ever let go of the handlebars you would neither fall forwards nor backwards. Both my bikes are quite low at the front, uncomfortable for riding long distance on the canal, but always feel good on descents as I stick to that centre of mass training I had, it doesn't come naturally, I have to focus on it.
10mm makes a big difference to handling, for me. Changes weight distribution.
If there is too much pressure on your hands, then yes it'll help - as will raising the bars.
I get cheap but decent ones from On One or CRC (Race Face and similar). £15-20 is worth it.
That stem change isn't going to fix your issue
As above, get weight off your bars. The centre of mass on the pedals is good advise
Have you tried using a higher angled stem?
I found the front end of my Voodoo Wazoo to be pretty low, so I swapped out the ~75mm 7 degree stem for my On One 80mm 35 degree, it raised the front end ~5cm and the bike feels much more comfortable.