Actually, I don't think the stems are shorter. In the stock mirror the stem attaches near the bike side, the "Live to Ride" mirrors the stem attaches in the middle, which means the whole mirror is closer to the bike than the original, hence, I see my elbows. I picked up mirror stem extensions yesterday, they will raise the mirror apprx. 2 inches, don't know if it will help or not.

 

Mirror extensions from Harley on the stock mirrors worked just fine for me, before the only thing I was seeing was my shoulders

 

Along this same train of thought, has anyone noticed the right mirror mount is on the outside of the master cylinder assembly which is about an inch farther out from the handlebars than the left mount which is on the inner side of the clutch lever bracket? And with the right and left mirror stems being the same length, I see more of my left elbow/shoulder. I have often thought I should walk through the dealer showroom with a tape measure just to satisfy my own curiosity as to the different models all use the same mirrors. Being that they are not right/left interchangeable, I would have thought HD could have easily compensated for this long time ago.