Firstly came down to polo today, every1 was very friendly (i was on the longster)
Thanks to matt for making me fixed, this made the ride home fun after the first traffic lights, sprint to a coast moving oddly

Secondly, i need some advice, i was thinking about risers but i don't think they would suit my style of riding, i like my hands close to the stem, but i want something wide for the hill climbing.
Can you have two stems on one bike, i know that sounds dumb, maybe i need a large angle stem, to give it some lift.
Still think that i need to think about it

randomly found this, if anyone wants a cheap bike
http://www.rscycle.com/s.nl;jsessionid=0a0004471f43c66b269308394022b7bddb 81b69f684d.e3iKaNePch4Re34Pa38Ta38Ochb0?it=A&id=21 400
just gotta get it to england

You might need an adjustable stem:

You want your hands close to the stem at times, far away at other times?
What's wrong with drops, bullhorns or even (heaven forbid) wide risers for this purpose?

What do you mean by two stems? Are you too stretched out or something? Not quite sure what you're getting at regarding "width of your hands" and your "reach". Sounds like multiple issues..

i ride with risers, sometimes i like to ride with my hands practically on the stem (in the dip of the risers) which stretches me out a little, then the rest of the time i ride with my hands in the right place, which is wide enough apart to be able to control the bike and gives you more or less enough space to get up hills. but still chopped down a little.

Plus, if you're riding around london there arent a great many hills that really require hill-climbing specific setups, unless you want to race up them of course... I made the move from drops to risers recently, and to be honest i'm glad i did, i feel in much more control over the bike.

You mean like aerobars?

riser is a handlbar term. prob confused with the deg of rise (hence callin it "riser") in a stem?

maybe a bullhorn's the way to go. sounds like you're stuck between the trendy short riser and practical bullhorn/drop bar

polo = risers

riding around any distance = drops. You know they make sence.

i think i know what i'm gonna get,a riser like this


and a short stem, are there disadvantages to short stems?
i'll see how it turns out

Short stems are grrrrrrreat.

they are usually chromoly, which means fucking heavy.

and a 22.2 bar clamp, which means a shim, or a bmx stem.

I've got some .243 racing ones, in black doing nowt if you want to try them.

erm thanks for the offer the only reason why i wanted these ones is that they have the brace over the point where the stem fixes so it should be a nice place to rest my hands
weight: shouldn't bee too heavy, my present drops are bout 700-800g the scales were changing, these bars say about 800, for 710mm, but i'm gonna cut it down to max of 450mm, so a little less weight
The shim shizness is a pain in the arse but i'm gonna get a new stem so may be able to sort something, just a matter of searching
thanks for the advice tho, greatly appreciated

those bars, the gusset prison bars, the .243 and the dmr ones are all the same.

you can get an atomlab GI stem which is designed for 22.2 bars, it's about the cheapest one out there that will do the job.
they look quite nice too.



BUT if you want to get both hands on the cross brace, you'll have to have very small hands or only grab partially, it's not a very large area, about 6".

i only need to rest two fingers per hand, so should be spacious, would i do better with an adjustable stem?
and is the atomlab GI too short? is there such a thing as a too short a stem?

thanks so much for the help

flickwg raised an interesting point. what is the advantage of a short reach stem? I'm currently running the stock bianchi pista stem which is pretty long. not planning to change because the frame is a little small for me i think so the extra stretched-outness is kind of comfy.

HOWEVER, still interested to know what difference it makes, mainly cos i've just got a new frame that'll be built up in the next 4 months or so.

it'll speed up the steering, and possibly push your riding weight back which might not be ideal for you back position.

personally, I don't think it's a good idea to use a very short stem on a road bike, but I suppose if it's comfortable..why not.

That is super heavy !

It is not a great comparison but my flat Easton EC90 CNT bars are 92g.

My old Easton CT2 Monkey Lite Riser was 148g.