Rich's Tongfamily (Richtong.net add-on)

My buddy “Gary”:http://beagledreams.com needs a shorter stem. I volunteered to help him out. He has a Gary Fisher Sugar 3+ and it is a 110mm stem, but he probably needs a 90mm stem. Here are links if you need to do the same thing by checking out Stem Reviews, Specs and Shopping Information.
A good place to find the right stem in the first place. Mountain bikes are a little confusing in that there is DH (downhill) where you need massive stuff for falling down hills, cross country which is light and fast and freeride somewhere in between. Gary has a cross country bike, so good stems look like those that have at least 7 recent ratings (there are some stale ones) and score 4.4 or above:
* “Race Face Deux”:http://mtbreview.com/reviews/Stem/product_88919.shtml. Top reviews. Now on sale at Supergo for $50. Wahoo. But the shortest is 110mm.
* “Titec Little AL”:http://mtbreview.com/reviews/Stem/product_78988.shtml. A very nice lightweight crosscountry stem. Just $31. But the shortest is 110mm.
* “Kore Lite”:http://mtbreview.com/reviews/Stem/product_23128.shtml. Another light stem.
* “Ritchey WCS”:http://mtbreview.com/reviews/Stem/product_88841.shtml at $60. This one has also gotten good reviews somewhere else I’ve seen.
* “Thomson Stem”:http://mtbreview.com/reviews/Stem/product_69197.shtml although at $80 expensive, it gets rave reviews and lots of them. Very popular
* “Titec Little AL”:http://mtbreview.com/reviews/Stem/product_78988.shtml. A very nice lightweight crosscountry stem. Just $40.
* “Kore Elite”:http://mtbreview.com/reviews/Stem/product_23132.shtml also very expensive at $90 but beautiful
* “FSA XC-120”:http://mtbreview.com/reviews/Stem/product_85814.shtml. Super light from the Taiwanese powerhouse.
* “Titec Big AL”:http://mtbreview.com/reviews/Stem/product_23157.shtml more reasonable for $30 direct.
To find the best prices, I troll:
* “Qbike”:http://qbike.com/category/stems.html. This has aggregates a bunch of online resellers as well as ebay.