Who makes the 10mm direct mount stem? I haven’t been able to find one.
Weird Reversed Stem Geo / Chat
- Thread starter Rob Rides EMTB
- Start date
Onoff.
flatlander99
New Member
- May 21, 2026
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Last edited:
BeMoreBikes
New Member
- Mar 4, 2026
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I’m accepting preorders now for the direct mount RR stems. Let me know if you have any questions.
Does anyone else find very short stems twitchy, and reversed stems floppy?
I tried a Rulezman 15 mm stem + spacers to get my hands almost exactly where they would be with a BMB-style setup. In both the forward and reversed positions it felt nervous/twitchy. That fits my general experience: once I go much below about 35–40 mm of stem length, the steering starts to feel too reactive and unstable, even if the hand position looks good on paper.
I then tried a 35 mm stem reversed, with different amounts of roll on a 75 mm rise bar. With the bar rolled so the rise was roughly in line with the fork/steerer, it actually felt pretty good once moving. The downside is that it shortens the effective reach by roughly 70 mm compared with the same stem forward, so it would feel cramped on most bikes. It only partly works because this frame is already too long for me.
When I rolled the bar forward to regain some reach, the bike became twitchy again. I suppose that rolling a high-rise bar forward moves the grips farther forward relative to the steering axis, so small body movements and hand inputs feed into the steering more easily, like having a shorter stem.
The separate issue is slow-speed flop. With the stem reversed, the front wheel feels like it wants to tuck or jackknife at walking pace: once the wheel starts to turn, it wants to fall farther into the turn and pulls the bars with it. I assume the stem is not actually increasing trail or changing the bike’s inherent wheel flop. Rather, it changes my hand position relative to the steering axis, so I have less natural leverage/damping against the flop that is already there from the slack head angle, long front centre, high trail, and heavy front end.
So, from my experience so far, it seems the BMB 15mm reversed stem would be unsuitable for me on both grounds: the short length would make steering twitchy, and the reversed-ness would make it floppy. However, I do like an upright riding position to take weight off my dainty hands and back, so I'd like to know if there's some way of mitigating these issues to make a BMB-style setup work. Has anyone else had these problems, and if so, did you manage to solve them? I suppose steepening the head angle would address the flop, but might make the twitch worse.
I tried a Rulezman 15 mm stem + spacers to get my hands almost exactly where they would be with a BMB-style setup. In both the forward and reversed positions it felt nervous/twitchy. That fits my general experience: once I go much below about 35–40 mm of stem length, the steering starts to feel too reactive and unstable, even if the hand position looks good on paper.
I then tried a 35 mm stem reversed, with different amounts of roll on a 75 mm rise bar. With the bar rolled so the rise was roughly in line with the fork/steerer, it actually felt pretty good once moving. The downside is that it shortens the effective reach by roughly 70 mm compared with the same stem forward, so it would feel cramped on most bikes. It only partly works because this frame is already too long for me.
When I rolled the bar forward to regain some reach, the bike became twitchy again. I suppose that rolling a high-rise bar forward moves the grips farther forward relative to the steering axis, so small body movements and hand inputs feed into the steering more easily, like having a shorter stem.
The separate issue is slow-speed flop. With the stem reversed, the front wheel feels like it wants to tuck or jackknife at walking pace: once the wheel starts to turn, it wants to fall farther into the turn and pulls the bars with it. I assume the stem is not actually increasing trail or changing the bike’s inherent wheel flop. Rather, it changes my hand position relative to the steering axis, so I have less natural leverage/damping against the flop that is already there from the slack head angle, long front centre, high trail, and heavy front end.
So, from my experience so far, it seems the BMB 15mm reversed stem would be unsuitable for me on both grounds: the short length would make steering twitchy, and the reversed-ness would make it floppy. However, I do like an upright riding position to take weight off my dainty hands and back, so I'd like to know if there's some way of mitigating these issues to make a BMB-style setup work. Has anyone else had these problems, and if so, did you manage to solve them? I suppose steepening the head angle would address the flop, but might make the twitch worse.
Bufort
New Member
- Mar 26, 2026
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It sounds to me like you should stick with what you're already comfortable with, and that you need a shorter frame. Experiment with high rise bars/stems, so this would give you the bar feel you already like and are familiar with, and give you a more upright position, without the odd feeling of negative reach. Why do you want to make the BMB setup work?
I haven't yet found a setup I really like. I previously had really high forward bars on this bike, but it didn't allow rapid changes of direction because (a) high bars (forward or back) need to travel further to achieve the same lean angle, and (b) I'm not very tall, so I don't have a huge range of movement that would allow me to tip the bike far enough. With a reverse stem, I can have the upright riding position I need for comfort with the grips lower and closer than with the forward stem, making it easier to tip the bike side to side. There is also some added stability/confidence from having so much bike in front of you, at the cost of reduced agility in tight corners and wheel flop at slow speed. (The fastest setup I tried is low forward bars, but I'm willing to sacrifice some speed for comfort and confidence on steep stuff.)
You're probably right that a shorter bike with high forward bars would be best for me. At 172cm I'm right in between the Small and Medium recommended height for the Geometron G1. I find Medium in most other brands is a bit too short once I've raised the bars to my preferred height, as that reduces the effective reach.
In any case, I'm curious why the proponents of short reverse stems don't seem to find it twitchy or floppy. Am I doing something wrong in the setup? Is it specific to my long, slack frame?
Bufort
New Member
- Mar 26, 2026
- 34
- 34
Well I run a 10mm OnOff and a Rulezman 15mm stem, putting my actual hands approximately inline with the steerer or just behind. I don't find it floppy, my head angles are pretty average for these days, and I use a medium frame, correct for my height, but end up with a slightly shorter setup due to the short stem. I've always run high bars and short stems though, 50mm in 2000, down to 30mm more recently, and now 15mm. A 50-60mm stem to me now feels terrible, so I think a lot of it is simply down to preference and riding style.
BeMoreBikes
New Member
- Mar 4, 2026
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Bronson Moore on Instagram: "#whatsthatwednesday Do you want more direct front tire feel with less wheel flop? The RR (Raised Reversed) stem is both Raised up and Reversed in offset so that your hands are ultimately behind the steering axis instead
35 likes, 1 comments - bemorebikes on March 5, 2025: "#whatsthatwednesday Do you want more direct front tire feel with less wheel flop? The RR (Raised Reversed) stem is both Raised up and Reversed in offset so that your hands are ultimately behind the steering axis instead of in front as is...
www.instagram.com
In this video I talk all about this concept. From a strictly technical perspective, a reversed offset reduces wheel flop at the bars relative to the frame and ground whereas a forward offset increases wheel flop at the bars relative to the frame and ground. Wheel flop is a function of trail and headtube angle. The longer the trail and even more so the slacker the headtube angle, the more wheel flop you get. You can measure this basically by looking at the mechanical trail on a frame which is the trail measured perpendicular to the steering axis instead of along the ground. The higher up vertically along the steering axis that the perpendicular trail line sits, the more wheelflop you have because as you turn the bars, the headtube of the frame will lower that amount down as it moves to the side. This is a simplified model, as a fully accurate model would also need to account for wheel diameter, tire profile and width, wheelbase, and assumes the bike is kept upright, but the general principles are accurate enough to get an idea.
You can think of this in a sense like as the wheel turns right, the headtube moves over to the right and drops down some amount as a function of wheel flop. When you turn the bars to the right, a forward offset sweeps further away to the right side from the headtube and drops further down as a function of headtube angle and bar offset forward since the center of the stem sits above the perpendicular of its extension from the steering axis since the steering axis is at an angle back. When you turn the bars to the right, a reversed offset sweeps to the left of the headtube countering some of its movement to the right and comes up countering some of the headtube drop as a function of headtube angle and bar offset rearward since the center of the stem sits below the perpendicular of its extension from the steering axis since the steering axis is at an angle back. As such a forward offset amplifies the movement at the headtube that we call wheel flop, and a reversed offset counters the movement at the headtube that we call wheel flop leading to less wheel flop felt at the hands.
With that said, there is still the real world experience of something that you are calling wheel flop happening. I suspect it’s not strictly speaking wheel flop, but instead a different response at the bar that I would need more detail to parse out. I suspect you might be a rider who tends to lean your body more than the bike in turns which I would argue is incorrect technique and most mtb coaches advise against it instead recommending to lean the bike more than the body. Whether you agree with that technique being preferable or not isn’t really relevant though as the more important point is that a forward stem responds best to leaning the bike more, and a reversed offset stem responds even better to leaning the bike more while a forward offset stem responds ok to leaning the body more than the bike while a reversed offset stem may respond worse to leaning the body more than the bike sometimes leading to awkward or twitchy feelings. You can see an example in the video here.
Bronson Moore on Instagram: "You’ve got to keep them separated! One of the most common mistakes I see cornering is improper bike body separation where riders lean their body a lot, keep the bike upright, and steer the bike around a turn. Bike body se
241 likes, 7 comments - bemorebikes on October 10, 2025: "You’ve got to keep them separated! One of the most common mistakes I see cornering is improper bike body separation where riders lean their body a lot, keep the bike upright, and steer the bike around a turn. Bike body separation is all...
www.instagram.com
I’m exaggerating the technique a little for illustrative ease, but exaggerating good technique typically doesn’t do anything bad. If you have a right turn, and your instinct is to move your hips to the right to the inside of the turn, then it will be harder to get enough bike lean to carve instead of steer. You can check for this by feeling for the frame or seat between your legs. If you feel the frame or seat touch your left leg on a right turn then you are leaning your body in and keeping the bike upright. If you can feel the bike on your right leg in a right turn, then you are leaning the bike in and keeping the body up correctly.
A forward offset stem moves the bars to the inside of the bike during a turn, so when a rider moves their body to the inside of the bike during a turn by leaning their body in and keeping the bike upright, they follow along with the bar’s movement more in essence following the flop as they rely on steering at the bars. When you do the same body in and bike upright movement on a reversed offset, the bars move away from you towards the outside of the bike as you try to steer them in which can lead to awkward handling. If your tendency when it feels like the wheel is flopping over to the right is to try and chase it by moving your body in to the right and standing the bike up to the left, then the reversed offset would give you less feel of the flop at the hands due to its reduced hand flop making you follow the flop less, subsequently feeling like you have less control of the flop. The solution in essence is to try and move the bike over to the right to counter the flop instead of your body while keeping your body upright and calm. The more things you can do to keep your torso and especially head calm and more still while letting the bike move and follow terrain underneath you, the better and smoother you will ride generally with easier ability to see down the trail.
When you rely more on bike lean and less on bar steer to corner, by leaning the bike more than your body, the bike responds better, with better sideknob engagement, a calmer and more predictable drift response that’s easier to catch, and a kinematically tighter turn for a given steer at the bars. This is true both for forward and reversed offset stems as this is about what the bike responds best to. A Reversed offset stem helps you lean the bike more because for a given steer and lean of the bars from the rider, the bike will be further leaned over, and we can only lean the bike away from us as far as we can reach the bars. You can see this illustrated here.
Bronson Moore on Instagram: "A common misconception people have with the RR stem is that you corner it fundamentally differently, and the bars are going to be way up in your face impossible to get on top of. If you are using good technique ie. leanin
144 likes, 15 comments - bemorebikes on November 26, 2025: "A common misconception people have with the RR stem is that you corner it fundamentally differently, and the bars are going to be way up in your face impossible to get on top of. If you are using good technique ie. leaning the bike more...
www.instagram.com
Let me know if you have any questions from in this, or if any of it is unclear and please tell me more about when you are feeling the wheel flop, and what it feels like so I can better understand it and help. Also, have you made any suspension adjustments going from a traditional stem and bar height to the notably taller and reversed stem setup you are running there?