Mountain bike stem lengths vary from rider to rider and bike to bike. The length of your mountain bike stem is also one of those components that can drastically alter how your mountain bike performs on the trail. Typically, a longer mountain bike stem will make your bike climb easier and turn quicker, but this comes at the expense of some stability on the long downhills and when your tires leave the ground. Shorter mountain bike stems make your bike more stable on the downhills and make your steering less twitchy and more predictable, but this comes at the expense of your mountain bikes climbing stability. As I look around the various trailheads that I frequent, I can see there are basically two camps when it comes to mountain biking stems, those that experiment with different lengths and those that use whatever the hell came on their bike!
Mountain Bike Stem Length – What is yours?
Time for another survey to see what you guys are doing with your mountain bikes. Two simple questions again…what stem length are you running and did you come to that length by testing or just making due with what you have?
Now…there is a trend to this question that should be addressed…the type of bike you are riding can have a direct affect on the length of your stem (DH vs. XC race is a great example), but due to the fact that most of you are riding trailbikes due to a recent survey…I think we can ask these questions without asking what bike you are riding at this time. If you want to expand on the bike and why you use a particular length…hit up the comments section at the bottom of this article and tell us why you made your choice.
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I founded Bike198 back in 2008 and started riding bikes seriously in 1994. A lot has changed since that time and one of the greatest releases is still getting out on the bike and shredding trail or tearing up the road.
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