[Closed] To all who have never tried a 35mm stem....

Agreed. Should probably make double clear in the thread title that you mean 35mm extension... not 35mm bar clamp.

What diameter is the 50?

(Just about to move up from a 40)

If it's 35 then sell it to me.

@kelvin, oh yeah you're right, oops forgot about that source of confusion (hmmmm how to change a thread title?....).

@thegeneralist sorry it's a 31.8 🙁

I've just gone the opposite way 35mm to 50mm. Not had chance to try a proper ride yet but feels good for slow maneouvering around the garden, also a bit easier to lift the back wheel.....that may be a warning sign.. 😉

35mm is the worst length of all stems, just because it's hard to google for and you get loads of links to 35mm diameter stems instead of length.

It depends on the bike tbh, I was surprised to go back up to 50mm on my enduro bike. Not because I desperately wanted to add cockpit length or anything, it just provided the best allround bike shape. Even really good stems are pretty cheap (*), so it's a nice easy thing to experiment with

(* yes you can buy expensive stems even now but don't fool yourself that they're any better)

I'm going back up to a 50mm on mine, but it's designed around that length and feels a bit cramped with a 35mm. Like @Northwind says, depends on the bike.

Or sit on the fence with a 42.5mm burgtec 😂

I would, but it would make the reach (the actual reach with me arms, not the Reach) too short on my bike - so then I'd need either a layback post or a new frame. Can't get layback droppers so that one's out.

couldn't you move the saddle 15mm further back on its rails?

It rather depends on the bike. I put one on my old Patriot and it does make the steering significantly 'nicer' than with a 50mm, however because of the short reach of that bike the bars ended up just too close.

I guess with the er...508mm reach on mine I had some spare to play with, (and I guess my bike, a Pace 529, was designed with very stubby stems in mind) but just wanted to say to anyone out there wondering if it's worth a mess around with I'd say absolutely give it a pop, I was surprised.

35mm is the worst length of all stems, just because it’s hard to google for and you get loads of links to 35mm diameter stems instead of length.

Ha, yep been there.

Thank god they don't make them in 29 or 27.5.

I'm with you anyway OP, 35mm-long stems on all my MTBs.

couldn’t you move the saddle 15mm further back on its rails?

No

I've stuck a 50mm on mine (albeit, was only 40mm before!) And it just feels.. better..!

DrP

75mm feels a bit short to me so I won't be going to 35mm!

My XC bike is best with 90 on it 🙂

I would defo advocate for people to test out different lengths stems. I tried a 32mm because the internet said shorter was better, but I actually preferred my 40mm stem. There was an article on Pinkbike that was interesting about hand position on the bars relative to the steering axis, and if you go too short the handling can become more twitchy and that's what I felt (before reading the article!).

To all who have never tried a 35mm stem….

Welcome to 2014 onwards 😉

had a 35mm stem on my hard tail and it sucked, works really well with a 42.5mm stem.

Pah!

All depends on bike geo, rider proportions, fork offset, riding style. It would be terrible on my bike. 6ft on a large, with a 70mm stem, does what I want it to. To go 35mm stem I'd need an XL frame to get the reach back, which would be compromised in many other ways.

Might work for you, but saying try a 35mm stem is like telling everyone to try a 28" leg jean...

What backsweep do you have on your bars? One person's 35mm stem is another's 50mm stem with different bar sweep!

I found 35mm had the horrible tendancy to tuck the front wheel under. Swapped it back for a 50 and the bike is a lot smoother in the corners.

Large HB160, 70mm 36's with a 35mm long stem. Nice.
Med 2015ish BFe, 160mm Yari with 50mm long stem. Shite. 70mm stem. Acceptable.

Fork travel/AC probably has a part to play, too.

“ What backsweep do you have on your bars? One person’s 35mm stem is another’s 50mm stem with different bar sweep!”

This!

Stem length has a huge effect on steering feel - but it’s the effective stem length (ESL) that matters, which is my term for the forwards offset of the centre of the grips vs the centre of of the steerer tube measured perpendicular to the steering axis.

With wide bars and typical sweep and either no rise or rise inline with steerer a 35mm stem gives an ESL close to zero. I’ve found I don’t like this, I like the slower more stable feel of an ESL of about 20mm (50mm actual stem).

If you run high rise bars with the rise vertical you’ll add more ESL. Likewise if they have less sweep or are narrower.

All depends on bike geo, rider proportions, fork offset, riding style.

This. I tried shorter stems and went back to 50 to 60 mm.

I went up to a 30something after using mondrakers 10mm stem. It helped me get my weight forward and stopped the bike looking really odd and looking down at the crown race

I’m on 110mm 😐

I swapped a 35 onto my commuter from my road bike (put the 50 on the road bike) and it made it feel a lot more nimble round town. I think I have a 50 on my Stumpy and that's a decent fit for it.

The road bike had a 120 and it hurt my back, so I was looking for something that would fit me better. The 50mm has not had much use, but feels better.

When I went from 45mm stem to 35mm stem I started getting arm cramp and hand grip issues on short local trails upon which Id never had an issue before. Used to only get it on long 2min+ descents, went up to a 50mm stem and it helped reduce arm pump and hand grip issues across the board for me.

just to be that guy. You can't adjust reach with a stem. That is fixed. centre of headtube to line thought BB. You can adjust the effective reach however.

Yeah of course it depends whether you're on a modern geometry MTB.

For slightly older bikes, 45mm or 50mm worked very well for me.

Old news, my lad has had a 35mm stem on his CX/Road bike for ages and also on his MTB 😀

Conversely my XC FS is just about bang on with a 70mm stem

35mm stem on both my Whyte S150 and my new Scandal. It works well.

What backsweep do you have on your bars? One person’s 35mm stem is another’s 50mm stem with different bar sweep!

Well aware of this, I run relatively narrow bars (740mm) so the hands on the grips are still ahead of the steering axis.

All depends on bike geo, rider proportions, fork offset, riding style.

Yeah, I think that was what I was saying. 🙂

“Yeah of course it depends whether you’re on a modern geometry MTB.

For slightly older bikes, 45mm or 50mm worked very well for me.”

What aspect of and how modern though? Head angle or reach vs height (or torso length) or both?

My bike came with a 50mm stem, went to 35mm with wider bars couldn't get on with the wider bars as they were making my shoulders sore, also struggled to balance my weight and often the front wheel would wash out when cornering hard.
Now using 45mm with narrower bars. I find the bike is more stable this way.

I went the other way, went from 35mm to 50mm and felt the bike responded much better. Generally stems aren't too expensive and hold their value so they're great for testing out to see what works for each person.

I found my bike felt a little too 'short' for want of a better word, when i was off my saddle. 1.5cm is nothing but the change it makes to the feel of the bike is ridiculous.

What aspect of and how modern though? Head angle or reach vs height (or torso length) or both?

I don't pretend this is universally applicable, but for me it felt like it put my hands in the right place then.

As my subsequent frames got longer, I found I needed shorter stems - but I didn't actually get to try the shorter frames with the 35mm stem. It could have been amazing, I'll never know.

🙂

I went from a 60mm to 35mmm

It felt a bit different in a vague difficult to define way. This is on an XL hello dave hardtail with a massive reach of 520.

I'm not sure I could tell the difference even riding back to back. The 60mm broke, so I'll never know 🙂

My orange clockwork 120 has a reach of 480. I went to a 70mm stem on that as it just felt too short in comparison to the hello Dave with a 50mm stem on.

I tried it but I have my weight too far back anyway and it exacerbated that problem. Stuck with 50mm

In hindsight I suppose I could’ve played with bar height and sweep but that fell onto the CBA pile

35mm stem, Stooge Moto bars with 17 degree back sweep, it's a delight on my Stooge Mk4 🙂

I agree with some comments around there is too short. I was running a 42mm Renthal stem for quite a few years and felt very comfortable on it - i felt relatively central on the bike. Then this year i upgraded the frame to a new model and with it changed the cockpit, so "upgraded" the bars to 35mm dia, zero rise but 32mm long (RF) - Sweep and rise on bar was same as last one (both Renthal).

Front wheel tucking was and still is to an extent an issue

Feeling a loss of traction on the front in longer sweeping berms where you're not forcing weight over the front.

It's def an unsettling experience, but as with everything you generally tend to adapt the more you ride, for me it's about being more conscious where my weight is and pushing back a bit more, though cannot help feel that 32mm stem is just too short..

I remember changing to a shorter 90mm stem on an mtb. Which did improve the handling.

Regarding the effective stem length thing, I think you need to consider bar width minus shoulder width as well. If your arms are angled outwards when holding the grips, that would give some stability to the steering even with the hands and stem cap all in a straight line (so zero effective stem length). This is not the same point as the one about backsweep resulting in a lower effective stem length with wider bars (which would depend on whether the extra length of the wide bars was inboard or outboard of the bend).

Just been out for a couple of hours on the 50mm stem instead of the usual 35mm. I think I like it better but time will tell. Definately less wandery on the climbs. Seems to put my hands/arms in a more natural postion. Feels a bit more natural on the descents and I felt like I had a bit more control, got a PR on one so something must be working. Definately unweights the rear wheel more as it was locking/sliding more than usual, probably a body position thing as well though as I have been trying to compensate for the shorter stem by riding further forward of late..will need to re-educate myself.

Bigger evelation was changing the bars, fitted the Renthal alloys instead of the Hope carbon and the comfort difference over chattery rocks was very noticeable. More so than the fork damper retune I had done.

Try harder. Flip the stem round and go -35mm. It's the future.

There are so many things to consider as already mentioned, bar rise, backsweep, bar roll, personally I think when the tips of the bars line up with the stem cap bolt that's when the steering is spot on, but I could be talking bollox and everyone has different needs, I recall one pro rider years ago setting his bars slightly off square so there's no right or wrong I suppose.