Cyclocross Magazine

Cyclocross Community, Forums, Classifieds, Photos and Videos

I am curious what degree stem people have on their cx bike compared to your mountain and/or road bike and if you have any spacers under it.

I was running a Salsa 0 degree stem with no spacers but just found a sweet scandium Salsa stem that is 80/100. Seems like 80 might be a little low so might put a few spacers under it. Heard in cross it is good to have your stem up a little higher to put your weight on the rear of your bike. This would probably help especially when climbing on my single speed. I am running an 86 and 82 on my road bikes. Thoughts?

Views: 1746

Attachments:

Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

I've had several questions myself on this subject. I recently had a couple teammates of mine go to Andy Pruitt and Todd Carver up in Boulder to get fit on their road bikes. I asked if they could ask these 'fit gods' about setting up multiple bikes for different disciplines...(mountain bikes, cyclocross bikes, etc.) The answer they got suprised me....They said the fit from bike to bike is almost exactly the same. Maybe going from a road bike to a cx bike or mtn bike, you might set it up a bit higher, but other than that its the same....With that said I would put the same length stem on your bike as you would on your road bike If they share the same length toptube...if not, you compensate the length discrepensies in the toptube with different length stems.
I have heard that as well regarding stem length but degree is what I am more curious about. I heard the same thing about setting it up a bit higher but trying to figure out how much higher. Guess it is more personal preference and which discipline you are coming from. Regardless curious to see what people have theirs at.
Hank, degree won't really tell you much without also knowing how tall is the other riders headtube, how thick is the stack of spacers they are using, headset stack height, etc.

The most relative absolute measure for this is from the center of the front axle to the center of the bartops. And of course that changes with the height of the person.

Saddle to bar drop is also pretty useful here, but again changes with the rider height/build.
to get even more technical, the axle-to-crown measurement changes from road bikes to cx bikes, and bb drop/height also would affect it all. drop and reach from saddle is prob the best way to consistently measure the fit...assuming seat height and fore/aft position are similar to a road bike.

rear tire traction, visibility, descending steeps and riding trails could be reasons to have it higher, at the possible expense of some front wheel traction in cornering and more bumps going to your tush vs. arms.

some find themselves just spending more time on the hoods in cx, less in the drops, so a similar setup to a road bike can work in that situation.

let us know what you settle on.
I know the fit gods say one thing, but I run my Cross bike handlebars a lot higher then my road bars. I ride with Salsa Bell Lap bars and ride almost all the time in the drops. I find having the bar higher I am able to have more contol where on my road bike in the drops a lot more hunched over. I think if you ride your hoods then sometimes the drops I would agree you might just make your bar a little higher.

RSS

Sold something in our classifieds? Find this site valuable?

Consider a donation to the cause. We're cheaper than eBay fees, and it helps us here at CXM keep the lights on!

Enter any amount below, and click on the cow for some good karma. Thanks!

Amount:



Badge

Loading…

© 2024   Created by Cyclocross Magazine.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service