Bike Forums - Stiff and Lightweight Stem?

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^I'm with you on resisting upgrade-itis. I think most modern OS stems are excellent.
I was just trying to help you understand how a stem might flex more than the long lever it's attached to. But I'm obviously not very good at explaining it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ferrous Bueller (Post 15494587)

or maybe I'm just misunderstanding, completely possible. lol

either way, still would be interesting to which one deflects most under the same load. I do understand how a stem ~could~ flex more, I'd just kinda like to see a test that could take a few popular currently popular stems and bars and test each independently and let us reach our own conclusion. stem seems to be the cheaper way to get rid of a little flex, I guess if one were asking the question it would be interesting to know how much their existing stem deflected under a controlled test before they upgraded and got nothing in return other than a little placebo effect of having 'at least done something' about it. aside from fit/comfort which are highly subjective, flex in the stem and bars is something that can be actually measured and quantified. and by that reasoning it seems that having some fact available for the decision would be VERY important over some 'placebo' effect observation, conjecture, and misinformed opinion (my own included).

So I have a Thompson stem on one road bike and one Mt. bike and both are plenty stiff; a 3T Erganova on one other bike that is pretty good too but the Thompson is stiffer. But buy far, the most still stem that I have ever used is made by Syncros - now owned by Ritchey I believe. Bar none (sorry), it is the stiffest.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ovoleg (Post 15494515)

so whats a decent weight stem with good stiffness for sprinting?

I need one with 6 degrees, dont want 10 degrees that comes with the Pro Vibe

Literally any stem on the market fits those requirements. I'd bet my last dollar, if you're asking these sort of questions, you aren't going to be flexing anything with your sprint.

Quote:

Originally Posted by merlinextraligh (Post 15493613)

When I bought my Zero7, no one in the U.S. had the FSA carbon fiber stem with the Zero Z graphics, so I put an aluminum Zipp service course SL stem on.

Finally ran down the Zero7 CF stem from a shop in Switzerland, (at an outrageous price).

The Aluminum zipp stem weighs 125 grams; the FSA Zero 7 CF stem 165 grams.

I'm a big fan of the Zipp Service Course / SL bars, stems, and seat posts. They're elegantly designed, lightweight, functionally solid, nice looking, and not unreasonably priced.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jandro (Post 15494731)

Literally any stem on the market fits those requirements. I'd bet my last dollar, if you're asking these sort of questions, you aren't going to be flexing anything with your sprint.

http://i.imgur.com/Ptqcu.gif

i have a cinelli Vai stem...its an alloy and light as f**k

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jandro (Post 15494731)

Literally any stem on the market fits those requirements. I'd bet my last dollar, if you're asking these sort of questions, you aren't going to be flexing anything with your sprint.

http://stream1.gifsoup.com/view/132906/el-grone-o.gif

...and that's what I basically pointed out earlier.