Original subtitles

how do you select the right stem length

and we behind us we've got a bike which

doesn't even have a stem and there's two

two more bikes in the room which have

both got integrad cockpits as well so

we've got all the wrong things here to

be talking about this so how do you

choose the right stem length or how do

you know when your stem is too long or

Too Short this is a a quite a tricky

topic to talk about but I've tried to S

I'll try and simplify it a little bit

now the rabbit holes within rabbit holes

these most of these start out

presupposing that you've got the back

end of the bike correct and this is

again we won't we could talk for hours

about you know setting all this up we

have done in previous videos but let's

assume for a moment that your seat

height your setb your Q factor is pretty

good you got the cleat position roughly

in the right spot your pedal stroke is

nice and controlled you've got

reasonable weight distribution on the

bike without throwing way too much

weight forward over the front end or

being too far back so we'll presuppose

that the back half of the bike is pretty

well set up what things could you be

feeling which would indicate that you

may have a problem with your stem length

now the stuff that you You' you think is

pretty obvious is is all things to do

with your hands right so if you feel

like you're constantly trying to for

example get into the drops all the time

and go out because as you as you move

your hands down into the drops you'll

drop your torso down and your hand will

move further away a little bit than than

what it is when it's in the hood if you

find yourself wanting to ride in the

drops a lot it can be a sign that your

stem is too short right if you find

yourself gravitating your hand onto the

top of the hood and dropping your elbow

horizontal to the ground a lot in

preference to riding in the hood because

the hood feels a bit too close to you

like your triceps are getting a bit

loaded cuz a bit scrunched up if you go

towards that position out of comfort it

often means the stem is too short this

will often also manifest basically as

tricep fatigue when you're in the hoods

so if you're riding up on your hoods a

lot and you constantly feel like you're

pushing out into the hood a lot and your

tricep is getting quite tied from

extending your elbow very good indicator

the gy haven't you I can tell I'm just

flexing a lot here as we do this yeah

getting getting jacked mate getting

jacked so um if you find yourself

constantly pushing away with your tricep

it's often a sign that the reach is a

bit too short a good thing to do here is

also to look at your shoulder posture

with some video so set yourself up on a

trainer pedal at an FTP style load get

someone with a camera phone to video you

from the side shoulder posture is how I

sort of mainly determine stem length for

people in the clinic

um but I'm standing on the outside

looking in so you you can't do that with

yourself you got to video yourself right

or have a massive mirror if you've got

one but essentially the shoulder posture

that you're looking for is when you're

riding on the hoods at an FTP style

wattage so a sustainable effort that's

that's nonetheless fairly hard you're

looking to see things like this if you

get what we call protraction of the

scapulars around your chest wall where

the scapula moves around the chest wall

you're probably too long right so the

the protraction of the capulus means

that you're subconsciously trying to

make your arms longer right this is a

pretty good indication that you might

want to think about shortening the stem

you're looking for a reasonably what we

call a neutral shoulder position now you

will feel this if you're on the bike or

if you just do it yourself as you

protract your scapulars your traps come

up on tension you'll also feel on the

bike because you're loading your hand

you'll feel anterior shoulder load going

through the front section of your

deltoid here and you will basically feel

as if you're sort of pushing out to help

you get out to the bars another

indicator will be that your your elbows

are locking out you know if it's really

long you'll just you and this is very

indicative this sort of shoulder posture

very indicative of something that's too

long so pretty straightforward if you've

got a lot of this and you find yourself

gravitating your hand off the hood all

the time and sitting back here instead

of in the hood it's usually an

indication that the reach is 10 to 20 mm

too long so if you constantly gravitate

your hand here rather than being out in

the Hood the reach is probably too long

so that's another subtle indicator out

that you'll feel out on the road is that

you don't want to ride constantly with

your hand in the hood you want to just

bring it back and sit it there

preferentially and when you go into the

hood it feels like it's too stretched

out so that's those are the indicators

is the shoulder posture when it's too

long the elbow and the feeling of

wanting to gravitate your hand back off

the hood if it's too short you will get

things like what we spoke about before

excess tricep fatigue feeling like

you're wanting to push your hands away

all the time you'll feel like you want

to sit up on top on like an arrow tuck

position almost what I call the joystick

position on the hood where you're

holding the hood like this you'll feel

like you want to sit like that

preferentially to being in here because

when you're in the hoods your triceps

get really tired almost always an

indication that the reach is too short

and you want to go longer in the stem so

what's the sensation you should be

aiming for like that's where you're

about to go to What's The Sweet Spot

this sweet spot The Sweet Spot is when

you can ride for very long periods in

the hoods and not get any of those

things have a bent elbow no excess

anterior deltoid sort of load so no

sense of pain or fatigue no sense of

major pain or fatigue in your traps and

also through the PEC and the tricep the

tricep is often the first indicator that

it's too short the anterior deltoid and

The Traps are a sign that it's too long

when they start to get overloaded a lot

of the time so feeling this out and then

looking at your posture in a mirror or

with a camera phone is a really good way

of doing it you want to aim for a gentle

relaxed what we call a neutral shoulder

position so hopefully you're not like

this and you're not trying to drop your

torso forward between your shoulder

blades which can be a sign that it's too

short now if these Sensations are really

overt if they're really big like your

triceps are just killing you they're

really bad it's probably 2 cm maybe even

three Too Short if it's you seen that 3

cm occasionally yeah wow occasionally it

does happen and these people just they

just ride up on the hood like out on the

joystick position with their hand like

tucked inside the line of the hood all

the time and that that's how they ride

and they go oh yeah I can put it there

but I prefer it out there and it's just

a sign that the bar is way too close to

and they've never they've never thought

I wonder if I should try a 130 mm step

you know if they're on a 100 because

it's it feels like an enormous jump um

but if you've got really overt

discomfort you probably want to move the

stem length 2 cm maybe three right as a

test now this is all easy to say when

you're in my clinic cuz we just pull out

a stem change it in 5 minutes and then

test it and go actually you need another

centimeter and we go again so we can

change it easily if you're playing along

at home each time you got to buy a

different stem try and borrow some if

you've got some mates with old stems

lying around and test test is the best

way of doing it always so look for the

neutral shoulder position look for the

slightly bent elbow position obviously

when you tuck into an arrow tuck you're

going to get much more vertical with

your humorous and your included elbow

angle as you would call it is going to

get quite a lot lower so if you ride in

low arot tuck a lot you might want to go

slightly longer than you would think so

that you're not too cramped up and it

doesn't shorten up your torso and

restrict your breathing and that sort of

stuff so look for those areas of

discomfort anterior deltoid tricep

indicating that the the reach is is way

too long or too short and trapezius and

then marry that up with what you can see

on the phone footage of yourself on the

trainer and if it looks yeah it's

probably too long and if you look like

you're sort of cramped up and your your

your humorous is vertical and you feel

like you're pushing the bars away and

you want to move your hand out over the

hood like this it's too short when you

get really close to the ideal reach it

will become very difficult to spot any

of this stuff and you'll have a lot of

trouble so once like if you think if

you're on a 110 for example and you feel

like it could just go a little bit

longer just make a 10 mm jump out to a

120 as an example but don't make a

massive jump unless it feels really

unpleasant in which case it's it's

probably an indication that it's 2 cm

off yeah good rules of thumb there so

look for those sorts of things um don't

assume that because you're not very

flexible you need a short stem there are

way too many other factors coming into

this like the geometry of the bike how

long your arm is how far forward your

seat is the length of your femur your

cleat position which dictates your seat

setback too many variables of I've had

thousands of people say oh I always

thought I needed a short stem because

I'm not very flexible and it just turns

out that they their their sort of sense

of inflexibility is all related to for

example something like um that they have

very long legs and a short torso so

don't assume that because you think

you're inflexible that you need a short

stem you may be inflexible and just have

really long arms so you need a really

long stem or the reach on the bike is a

bit too short so you need a really long

stem there's and and vice versa as well

you may have very short humores or a

really long set of themers which means

the seat needs to be a long way back

which which means you need a short stem

a lot of other factors which come into

it so don't look at your body type and

think that I need a long stem or a short

stem because of this you must look at

your posture on the bike and the overall

position and forget about trying to

measure the length of your arms and your

inseam and all this sort of stuff just

look at your posture on the bike and

trust what you can feel and then try and

find someone with some uh stems that you

can swap and change onto your bike and

do a bit of testing yourself y cuz the

best test is always to give it a dry and

see what happens does it need to be

borderline perfect for most people I'll

give you an example so I I can kind of

go um within 10 ms I reckon I could do

100 Mil stem or 110 on The BMC over

there and I probably be okay is that the

same for most people it is the same for

most people yeah there's a range of

acceptability there the range is fairly

tight if you want it to be like as

perfect as it can be but everything is a

compromise you must remember this with

the reach on the bike when you're

sitting upright and cruising along at

150 wats you will probably feel as if

the stem could be a little bit shorter

when you're going flat strap in a bunch

ride in an arrow tuck at you know

rotating turns at 50ks an hour or

whatever you may feel like the stem is a

bit short because you're you know you're

operating in a completely different

torso angulation and therefore your your

reach is is changing dynamically by by

five or 10 cm you know your hands are

moving down and out huge distances when

you tuck down into an arot tuck so

everything is a compromise on a bike we

always want to have a a a mixture of the

two which are okay but you will always

feel when you do those long endurance

rides like oh maybe it could be a bit

shorter and vice versa but you're right

there is a a kind of a Zone where you'll

be okay and that zone is usually about a

10 mm zone for most people so for

example if you've got a 90 you'll be

okay and if it's an 80 you'll also be

okay and if it a 100 and a 110 you

you'll be okay there's a Zone good to

know absolutely so people don't have to

get you know pedantic about it yeah

people people on the internet love being

but you you need to be moderately

pedantic but not extraordinarily

pedantic okay that's good to know yeah

yep so you've usually got about a 10 mil

range you can work with and that's the

basics of stem Lake mate and look this

is becoming increasingly problematic

with integrated cockpit bikes don't even

want to think about them don't even want

to look at them mate they're beautiful

to look at and if you know your reach

perfectly and you're a data geek and you

can look at the reach of the bar and the

reach of the frame and think about how

many spaces you're going to have under

the stem and which stem you'll want it's

okay you can usually spec them up but if

you're sort of doing it for the first

time my advice is always buy a bike

which does not have an integrated

cockpit so you can easily and quickly

change the reach if you need to