Have someone take 3 pictures of you riding from the side. Hands on the
Hoods, Ramps and Tops. If you have natural elbow bend in the ramps, go
3cm shorter. If you only have natural bend on the tops, you need shorter
reach bars and a shorter stem. Something on the order of an 80mm reach bar
I originally had a 10 cm Nitto technomic on my Sam. That was definitely too
long for me. I swapped to a 7cm stem and have been much happier. For what
it's worth, I ride a 58cm Sam, have long legs relative to my torso, and
ride with bars below saddle height. Rivs tend to have long top tubes, so
I'm a small female, so all my stems are, say, 6 or 7cm in length; have
never had an issue.
That said, aren't Noodles super long-reach in-and-of themselves? What
about using a shorter-reach bar? I'm not sure if aesthetics are an issue,
but the front set-up might look more proportional if you
