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
- 34
- 34
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.