In my ongoing search for the perfect position on the bike (PLEASE tell me I’m not the only one!) I ordered a new stem from Bianchi. The bike comes with a 100mm stem, pictured here.

Which should be enough for a normal person. However, I am slowly discovering that I’m not really normal. I have a long torso and arms for the length of my legs, it appears, so when fitting a bike solely on inseam length (pretty standard around here) the frame could end end up being a little short for me and my gorilla arms.

Luckily, I think I’ve found the solution with this:

This is a 120mm stem which, according to my knowledgable friend Nigel, is about the longest you can get that is still considered ‘normal’. The results so far are a longer stretch, of course, but not much else I can feel. I did have to put a 5mm spacer back on the headset to compensate for the extra ‘horizontalness’, which probably still sits me in as low a riding position as before.

So, the search is on hold for the moment. Stay tuned, I’m sure it’s not over yet.