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I'm trying to get my head around hand position with stem length and bar backsweep. If for example, hypothetically I had a 40mm stem with a 7 degree backsweep bar, and a 50mm stem with a 9 degree backsweep bar that put my hands in the exact same position in relation to the middle of the steerer tube; would they both feel the same with regards to steering input?
Or would the longer stem feel slower to turn?
(I'm ignoring comfort for now between the bar backsweeps.)
it does depend on the bar manufacturer as some bars, Nukeproof for example, do correct for want of a better word, for the back sweep of the bar.
If your hands are in the same position the feel will be the same.
whilst ive tried probably every stem length and most reasonable sweep options i havent compared them in the way you describe. i would imagine a longer stem will still be slower to react as the bars are pivoting further from the steerer tube making the bars 'turning circle' around said tube larger. It probably wont be especially noticeable though between 40mm and 50mm unless you are the kind of rider who can really tell the difference between a 3mm stem spacer or one click of rebound. i would probably notice the bar sweep more than the stem length in your example and would base my setup on the sweep i prefer rather than the stem length. Of course that is hugely simplified and ignores lots of other important factors.....
“If your hands are in the same position the feel will be the same.”
This. Although the angle of the grips will affect the ergonomics. This remains true for bar rise, bar roll, stem rise, stem spacers, etc etc
i would imagine a longer stem will still be slower to react as the bars are pivoting further from the steerer tube making the bars ‘turning circle’ around said tube larger.
🙂 no
This is geometry 101. The only thing that matters is it the position of your hands in space in relation to the top of the steerer tube. The journey the bits of metal or carbon take to get from A to B is irrelevant beyond maybe adding a bit of weight and or flex if they are long. You could have a 50cm long stem, and as long as the bars were equally bonkers in shape and put your hands back where they were, the steering would stay the same speed.
The only thing that might change the feel would be obviously be if you liked (or even noticed) the change in the sweep and how that impacted your wrists.
Thanks guys, that's cleared it up. It gives me more options to try and tweak my bar position.