Since my 29er fork is in the shop, I'm back on my old 26er today
originally it had a 700mm bar 90mm stem, but had changed things around for a co-worker to ride, with a 760mm bar and 50mm stem.
I didn't bother to change back this morning to original bar/stem and went for a ride, and found the front end really light and squirrelly, like it had very little trail
so this afternoon just changed back to the long stem and kept the wide bar and found the steering much more stable
Both my 29er and 26er have 69 degree head angles and equivalent rake/offset for similar trail, and if anything a heavier front wheel/tire on the 26er
I'm thinking why not have slacker head angle, corresponding shorter top tube and with a longer stem, so that the front centre and saddle to handle bar reach wouldn't change, and you wouldn't have to reduce rake/offset (with increased wheel flop) to keep the front centre from getting to long. Or go for both slacker head angle with a long stem >50mm rake/offset and resulting longer front centre for even more stability without resulting wheel flop
So for every degree slacker head angle the stem should be ~10mm to 20mm longer (depending on if you are measuring to the axle or the imaginary head tube angle to ground point) to keep relationship of hand position to tire contact point relatively the same
Or in other words, for the same front centre, a slacker head angle with longer stem and shorter top tube would feel more stable and with less wheel flop
Last edited by: taprider on March 17, 2018, 6:11 p.m., edited 5 times in total.