Ideal stem hight?

Disclaimer: These tips are for the blog author, pls seek professional instruction as this sport may be dangerous!


Lower is better than higher. By far!
After the conversation with Drew from Different Bikes I realized that the lower stem makes it for much much better steering control, body position and overall riding.
It is simple to "hunt for" the sweet spot: no cutting of anything is needed. I simply took a big fat spacer from the bottom and put it on top of the stem!
I was amazed what a couple of mm do in this context, it may as well be miles of distance for a bike-less-self-propelling individual in a totally different context.

And yes, I made sure that all the bolts are tight when I was done: I first loaded the star nut and then tightened the stem bolts, not the other way around!

Dynamic riding

Disclaimer: These tips are for the blog author, pls seek professional instruction as this sport may be dangerous!

What I understood about North Shore riding is that it is a very dynamic process. I find that I constantly do little things based on the terrain situation that are not always noticeable from the side:

• shifting back and forth
• slightly pulling up on the handlebar with coordinated push on a pedal
• lowering and raising the seat
• switching to the appropriate gear to accommodate the terrain situation
• leaning the bike
• putting more weight in different places
• lifting from the seat (60%-40% weight distribution or so) or standing altogether
• doing or not doing many other things that I should or should not

Conclusion? I will take classes from Endless Biking!