Making A Bike Feel Longer.

[Adam-Griffin]

Well my bike just feels stupidly short and too cramped for me. I keep banging my knee on the stem aswell My current setup it:

Ciguena frame (990mm Wheel base, 362mm chainstays)

Monty Pr stem (145x25)

Monty Bars

And Echo lite forks.

I've looked for a new frame and no one seems to have anything longer than 1010ish which i think would still be far too short for me. Im not stupidly tall either ("5.6).

My question is, What part will make the most difference in the way my bike rides by changing it? I'm assuming it'll be the stem, if so, what kind of Geo should i be aiming for ?

I've considered stem stackers but don't have enough steerer tube left on my forks Will Different forks make a difference atall ?

Any help appreciated

Thanks.

[AdamR28]

New stem will make a huuggeee difference, how much steerer do you have?

[Adam-Griffin]

New stem will make a huuggeee difference, how much steerer do you have? .

How did you manage to read that and reply in the space of 1 minute ?

Thought as much, thanks for the input.

Will a longer/Higher stem restrict how the bike rides ? As it is it's great for Manuals and streety style moves and i don't want to lose that although I'd like to mix it up a bit and find a compromise between streety riding and more trialsy style stuff.

No steerer spare atall really although my headset stacks pretty high so may have some more if i change it. Probably around 3mm or so i'd imagine, think i'm going to struggle to fit a new stem with a larger clamp than the Monty one

Thanks alot.

Edited July 8, 2009 by Adam-Griffin

[MiuSliS]

Steam is defently worth a change. Bike will feel a lot more different.

[Dan6061]

I still have that Echo Team stem knocking about somewhere...

[Dan81]

longer stem should save your knees and give a bit more reach...but too long and it'll be a tw@ to bunnyhop

Edited July 8, 2009 by Dan81

[hdmackay]

Frame wise - You could look at something longer such as the GU Typhoon which is 1030, or any other frame around that length. But if your not wanting to part with that sorta money that's fair enough. And a GU wouldn't manual anyway near as nice as your Ciguena.

Bar and stem - These will make a massive massive difference. Your current stem is very low and short, you should look at say, the Echo SL one or the Try-All oversized ones, and tilting your bars forward can make the reach longer.

Forks - If you are willing to pay for them, it would be a good idea to find forks with as much rake as possible, as this is what makes the bike longer or shorter. Also when cutting the steerer, keep it long and use alot of stem stackers. And if in the future you find you want your front end a bit lower you can put some of the stackers on top of the stem. So it's definately best to keep the steerer quite long.

Hunter

[AdamR28]

Forks - If you are willing to pay for them, it would be a good idea to find forks with as much rake as possible, as this is what makes the bike longer or shorter.

Yes and no... Since you don't hang onto the wheel axles, increasing the wheelbase (although making the bike itself longer) will not actually make the bike FEEL longer to ride, hence a new stem being the best way to make the bike feel bigger.

[Steve-A]

As has been said try some different bar and stem combos.

The frame is gonna be fine length, especially as you're only 5'6". Its worth considering that often the short mods have short chainstays too. So wheelbase 1000ish, chainstays of 360ish. Then for example the old python was 1025, but it had375/380 chainstays. So the bb to headtube length isn't really gonna be much longer at all.

[hdmackay]

Yes and no... Since you don't hang onto the wheel axles, increasing the wheelbase (although making the bike itself longer) will not actually make the bike FEEL longer to ride, hence a new stem being the best way to make the bike feel bigger.

Ahh, I see.

Haha