elbow to finger tip?

barty81

Hi, i was told by a friend of mine, to determine if your stem length is correct you have to put your albow to the tip of the seat with your arm reaching out to the stem.If your index finger reaches roughy half way up the stem, then the stem is correct for you.When i started mountain biking again after a few years rest i developed a tight ache in my right shoulder and remembering what my friend had told me, i did the elbow to tip technique for which i discovered that my finger reached neally to the handlebars. So i went from 100mm to a 110mm stem which sort of helped i think, but part of me thinks that the only reason i had the ache in the first place was because my body wasnt used to it and that my muscles would take time to adjust.
Is this albow to finger tip technique just a guideline?? or maybe more suited for road cycling. i'd like to maybe go down to 90mm or is this not going to be possible.

benpinnick

Its irrelevant for MTBs. Stem length is mainly a refection of the handling effect that you want to the stem to have - shorter is quicker steering, more DH orientated while long stems are racier XC style. Stems go a long way to compensate for or complement the fork trail. You need to find your right one through trial and error really.

Try a 90 or 75 mm stem as a good starting point and work from there.

supersonic

Yep, is totally irrelevent, is an old roadie method that meant very little anyway.

louthepoo

I presume the measurement from your elbow to finger is a reach thing! Well surely the length of the upper arm makes just as much difference! So shouldn't that be taken into account! I had a 120mm stem on mine but after trial and error I have ended up with a 75mm stem and it feels totally different to ride! I am now 'at one' with my beast