Stem angle of dangle

johnnyleemail
johnnyleemail Posts: 14
edited August 2013 in Road buying advice
Evening good people of the forum,

I'm in the process of changing the stem on my Dirty Disco cross bike and I wondered if anyone can tell me how stem angle is measured. Say for example I want my stem to be completely horizontal, is this called a zero degree stem? And if so, in order for me to get my stem horizontal, do I need to take my head tube angle into account..because different bikes have different head tube angles right? So a zero degree stem on one bike might not be the same on another bike with a steeper head tube

I'm sure someone out there knows what I'm banging on about...?!

Comments

  • Grill
    Grill Posts: 5,610
    Stem angles are unique to the stem and are not effected by the HT angle. So yes, a zero degree stem would sit complete flat on a horizontal surface.
    English Cycles V3 | Cervelo P5 | Cervelo T4 | Trek Domane Koppenberg
  • foggymike
    foggymike Posts: 862
    A zero degree stem has no rise or drop relative to the steerer tube. This means your stem would slope up relative to the ground.

    I read your question as wanting your stem horizontal (i.e. level with the ground) which means you'd need a stem with a negative angle equal to the upwards slope created by your headtube angle. In reality stems tend to come in -6 or -8 degrees but there are all kinds of others out there from zero to -17 (Thomson being a good choice at these extremes) so depending on how fussy you are about the brand you should be able to get it right or pretty close.
  • neeb
    neeb Posts: 4,473
    17 degree stems are available, this number being chosen because it will result in a horizontal set up when used with a 73 degree head tube angle, which is probably the most common or at least about the average head tube angle (90 degrees minus 73 = 17).

    As well as thomson, 3t also do a 17 degree version of their arx team.

    Just about any angled stem can be reversed, so, for example, an 8 degree stem can be either -8 or +8 depending on which way around you put it.

    I think you will have difficulty finding a stem that will give you an exactly horizontal set up if your head tube angle is not 73 degrees, i.e. I don't thing you can get 17.5 degree or 16.5 degree stems, probably not even 16 degree or 18 degree ones.
  • crankycrank
    crankycrank Posts: 1,830
    Try this site. http://www.brightspoke.com/t/bike-stem-calculator.html You'll just need to know the headtube angle and stem angle. Most mfrs. will list their stem angles.