So I recently made a tweak to my Santa Cruz Bronson. It is built up as an XC rig and it rocks! It is a single track carving machine. The minor compromise I feel have had been making with this setup is that is not the most confidence inspiring rig when thingd get downhill and gnarly. I’m not talking downhill bike gnarly but both wheels on the ground kind of normal. It is not bad by any stretch of the imagination, I just feel I can “over ride” the bike. I hate all the micro-genre names but I wanted to shift more towards a trail/enduro feel on the bike.
I ended up trying something simple and relatively inexpensive. I switched from a 90mm 0 degree rise stem out for a 70mm 17 degree rise. I took the bike out to La Costa to see how this felt. As I predicted the climbs felt a bit awkward at firdt as my weight was shifted back slightly. On the climb I had plenty of switchbacks as well as some steeper pitches. By the time I made it up to the top of the climb I was feeling comfortable with the new setup. I descended down the back side and then up to the towers. This improvement was immediately noticed and I was feeling much more comfortable with the downhill chunkish bits.
Oh and the trails, the backside stuff was a bit overgrown with the flowerinf weeds starting to dry out. Meaning I got a free exfoliation treatment. Good Times.
Hi Bill,
About your stem tweaks, I learned from Lee McCormack that the distance between the grips and center of BB should match your body and be the same for all your bikes and different riding styles. And 5 to 10mm is noticeable. It sounds like the shorter stem might changed that for you.
Anyway, I’m a lot newer at MTB than you, and learning. Don’t mean to offend or assert any expert knowledge here. Just passing along some interesting bike-fit-theory for you and your readers. I’ve been playing with the same thing on my Bronson, shorter stem but higher handlebar rise.
Lee calls it “RideLogic”: https://www.llbmtb.com/ridelogic-bike-setup/
-Brian