Will take one and post it. I can tell you now it’s bugger all clearance 🙂 like hairline stuff at about 50psi, with 95kgs on it there is no rubbing, any higher and there is a small bit of rub.

Awesome to hear they fit – will be good to know for other Slate owners. Have you got a picture with the clearance?

To be honest I think it’s pretty complex. There’s certainly a ‘long stem to control steep steering’ (90s hardtails) vs ‘short stem to muscle a slack H/A around’ (modern trail bike). But there’s trail to be considered. Plus CoG, stack height, length of frond triangle etc.

I stand corrected. Admittedly I don’t have much experience with road bikes. My comment was based on trail biking where you want a shorter stem to move weight backwards when descending to avoid going over the bars. Thank you for posting this.

From a stem length discussion / bike designer…

“The longer the stem,” explains Tom Kellogg, “the more the rider’s weight pushing forward on the bars tends to keep the front wheel pointing forward.” As a consequence, the bike becomes more stable, especially at high speeds, which accounts to some extent why pro riders normally opt for a shorter frame and a longer stem. The extra stability also helps with the control of high profile race wheels in windy conditions.

The problem with increasing reach with a longer stem is that the bike becomes more twitchy. I like stability. The Salsa Warbird sizing reminds me of clothing sizes where length is increased up to medium and then the clothes just get wider. The Slate is longer while the Warbird is wider.

The thing with ‘reach’ is that it’s easy to accomodate for (within reason). You can switch your stem to something with 10-20mm extra length. It’s much harder to add ‘stack’ to a front end. Given your height, I’d definitely recommend testing a Slate in your size before buying one.