Riser bars?

@@loganjacobson2335 I agree with the uncut steering tube on forks. I recently bought a new bike (Speclzd Enduro). Everything felt very good except I wanted to be a little more upright instead of kind of being pulled forward. There were two spacers above the stem, I put the spacers below the stem, to get the stem to the top of the steerer tube. That wasn't enough so then I bought a Spank 60 rise bar. It feels very good now, both at the Dh park and on pedaling rides with the seat at the highest position where now I don't have to lift my head up and strain my neck to look ahead down the trail..

@bemorebikes, did you also try less than 150mm of rise? It sounds like a lot of the criticisms outlined in the video would be mitigated by reducing the total stack? On a personal note, being slightly less extreme (and allowing for more room for rhe rider to move their torso toward the front wheel) adds more (theoretical) appeal.

@@casestudymtb Yes, I actually started without even adding any height, and just using a Reversed stem. Because of how the headtube is at an angle, going back perpendicular to that angle also brings you lower. Due to this during early testing when I was using a traditional stem installed Reversed, I bought a steerer tube extender to bring the height back up to traditional. Since there was room on it to go even higher, I figured I’d test that too. You never learn if you don’t experiment! I’ve since tested from below a traditional height to about 80mm above the production RR stems height, and many different heights in between. At those various heights, I tested from 70mm forward offset through to -70mm Reversed offset, and various offsets in between sometimes even in just 5mm increments over a little over 3 years on multiple different bikes and geos. I did timed testing with a lot of these arrangements against traditional 50mm - 35mm stems on multiple trails that I knew well, and multiple bikes. I paid attention to what gave the best control, most fun, fewest crashes, and consistently fastest times. What I found was that a -15mm offset gave really good steering dynamics, and paired with the Raised height was consistently a lot faster relative to traditional stems, ie. 10 - 15 seconds on an under 3 minute trail section when run back to back with a 40mm stem on the same bike doing shuttle runs on the same day. The times would go up and then down and then up and then down as I switched back and forth from traditional to the RR stem. The run to run times for a given setup varied by under 2 seconds, but about 10+ seconds run to run between traditional and RR setups. Similar results were found on other trail sections, and on other bikes in subsequent tests. In those same tests, I also tested the -15mm offset at just above a traditional height. The times were pretty much right in the middle of the RR stem and traditional stem. As such, I didn’t feel a need to make the shorter version as the introduction of the concept as even though it was faster than traditional, it wasn’t as fast as the full RR stem. I did shorten the production RR stem a bit from testing though, and designed it to be able to accept spacers both above and below the steerer tube clamp to fine tune the height. At 5’8” I run it with about 30mm of spacers under it to bring it taller on my Trek Slash 29 M/L. This gave room for shorter riders to still put it a little lower than what I found my ideal height was, and to tune for personal preference. I do have plans for a shorter version for riders about 5’5” and shorter, and bikes with the height already built in in the future. I don’t have a date though for when it will be ready to buy, but it will be strong enough that any size rider can use it should they find the RR stem too tall for their tastes and bike.

Have you tried flipping the stem around for those times where it would be more beneficial? Such as trail riding with technical climbing, etc. Should work I think

@@noelbrown6771 You can do that, I even have a few customers who do exactly that. Flipping the RR stem to have its 15mm offset face forward brings the stem a little bit taller than Reveresd, and your hands to about in line with to still slightly behind the steering axis. I have tested this quite a bit. The handling is still very good, with many benefits relative to a traditional stem, but the steering dynamics are not quite as nice as with the -15mm offset. I recommend that setup most to riders who are on a frame that is a bit small to use with the RR stem in its intended orientation. It may also mesh better for different personal preferences like riders looking mostly for more height with a smaller adjustment from a more traditional setup. I stand by the intended orientation, but my goal is ultimately to make riders happier in their ride experience for their personal trails, bike, and ride feel priorities. My customers who are running it with the 15mm offset forward are still very happy with the switch from a more traditional stem. 😄

Truly enjoying my stem. Thanks for making this, Im looking forward to any other common sense outtabounds ideas you have. Congrats on the new colors for the stem.

More OTB you mean. All these "people" are jumping and berming. Try smashing big dh rocks because if crazy high stack worked in DH you'd know. This stem reduces reach by 50mm! Raising bars makes rock hits lift the rear wheel up, no ones rides with zero hand weight like this reviewer claimed

@@janeblogs324 You can't say that. That type of thinking is why the MTB world is slow to change. People said that same thing 20 years ago and now everyone thinks that's laughable. Motorcycles have the blueprint for what works. Look at motorcycles today and see how long it's taken the MTB world to adopt their technology and ergonomics. MTBs now have shorter stems, wider bars, disc brakes, single shocks, dual crown forks, etc etc. Motorcycles don't have handlebars heights below seat level.The MTB bikes aren't done changing, it's just taking them a while to get there.

@@janeblogs324@believe8263 The RR (Raised Reversed) stems position is very similar to a dirt bike both in stack and reach feet to hands and having your hands behind the steering axis. It’s interesting to me how similar they are considering the RR stem was not inspired by or designed to emulate the position of a dirt bike. I don’t even ride dirt bikes. The RR stem was developed over almost 3 years testing anything from below traditional height to about 80mm taller than the RR stem you now see, and anything from 70mm forward to -70mm Reversed always benchmarking against the traditional 50mm - 35mm stem. The RR stem that you see here is the culmination of all that testing to find the best Enduro mtb stem geometry. Mtbs have been influenced way too much by road bike designers particularly in the early days of mtbs. That’s a big part of why we have low bars. It’s a carryover from road bikes trying to be more aero. We started with the modified beach cruisers they called klunkers. Once it became big enough for bike brands to see it as something to capitalize on, they got to work using their road bike knowledge and road bike components to design off-road bikes to sell to their road biker customer base as a new activity to do outdoors. We went from relatively long wheelbase, slack headtube angle, long chainstay, tall wide bar with lots of backsweep, short stem and hands behind the steering axis klunkers for going DH super fast and having a blast on fire roads to the first production XC mtbs with short wheelbases, steep headtube angles, short chainstays, low straight narrow bars, and long stems with your hands way in front of the steering axis for going through the woods on simple bike paths. Since then, mtbs have been slowly progressing further and further away from their road bike roots to something more dedicated to off-road usage. The RR stem is the beginning of my contribution towards that goal. Had mtbs stayed true to the more klunker origins, maybe the geo I’m proposing would have already existed and been common place by now. To your point, I and many of my customers ride a lot more than jumps and berms. Smashing really rocky high speed dh terrain is where the RR stem shines. A big part of that is that it’s not just Raised up, it also has a Reversed offset. This gives a hand to front axle position that is more similar to a 59 degree headtube angle for a greatly reduced endo angle. This makes you feel much less prone to going over the bars when smashing big rocks and going down very steep technical terrain. This combines with a more horizontal angle of your arms to the bars so that you are less prone to feeling like you will go over the bar instead supporting into the bar. Along with that, the further back position puts all of your weight through your feet with very light hands so that your arms aren’t getting fatigued on long technical dh rides. Many mtb coaches recommend supporting all of your body weight through your feet and being balanced over the bottom bracket with minimal weight in your hands and good bend in your arms when riding in the attack position. The attack position originated in MX as a strong stable stance that lets the bike move underneath you with good bike body separation, good mobility, and gives good control and confidence. The RR stem through its independent testing process, trying various heights and offsets over nearly 3 years, has ended up putting the riders hands at a stack and reach that happens to be practically the same as what you would find on a MX bike. That same attack position can now be used properly on an mtb. If you are balanced over the bottom bracket, then your arms can be properly bent and loose to allow good mobility and the bike can kind of teeter up and down around the bottom bracket underneath you. If you look at Dakotah Norton for example, who has been known to actually want to run an even taller front end should his sponsors make a taller bar, he has been fighting for the win on the podium at the World Cup DH races these past years with a very tall front end relative to many of his competitors. He runs a more unique setup because he did a lot of testing of different bike setups to find what worked. He also rides moto and has said that this may have influenced his setup. Lots of people are scared to really experiment because if your testing is going in the wrong direction, then you’ve just wasted time that your competitors spent dialing in their existing setup and training. Time and resources are finite, but you never learn if you don’t experiment!

@@believe8263 literally every iteration you just mentioned is now standard fare for enduro/dh MTBs. But tall bars gives worse standing pedaling power and you use low bar for leaning the bike over and reaching down the leverage the whole frame. Just go install some 100mm riser bars and open strava, then try to tell me you're faster anywhere up, down or specifically smashing rocks on the steeps

@@janeblogs324 I have 78mm Pro Taper riser bars and they are WAY better than low bars. I can tell you've never tried this new stem. You're judging something you've never even ridden with. If you get a chance go try it and then let me know what you think. You'll be surprised.

It's not supposed to be higher with a normal stem either.

@@almabatekert_villanykorte3387 I understand that, but I'm not going to reverse my stem because of this.

@@tristanwwsd Okay? I'm just saying your setup was probably wrong before the bmx bars. Nobody should buy this 400$ ugly piece of garbage

This is what I would do instead of getting this stem.

Dropper mechanism in your stem? Sounds almost as bad as wireless brakes

what were they thinking, gotta leave those wires on your brakes...?@@almabatekert_villanykorte3387

I bunny hopped a mondraker foxy in a parking lot that had one of these on it. I’d say it was different for sure, the front came up way easier than I expected, I only did it once but I remember feeling too far back

​@@adamcvanwinkleAnd that bike is insanely long,supposed to be an ideal bike for this stem

The RR (Raised Reversed) stem is not the same as a very tall bar. The RR stem is both Raised and Reversed. Due to this your hands will be notably behind the steering axis of your frame instead of in front as they traditionally are. The Reversed offset improves and calms the steering dynamics. Since it arcs out instead of in when turning relative to the frame, it allows the rider to position themselves on the outside of the bike when cornering to load their side knobs properly while also leaning the bike in further for a kinematically tighter turn. The hand to front axle position parallels a 59 degree headtube angle for ultimate confidence in steep terrain, with a steering feel that is less floppy and more direct than the stock headtube angle of the bike with a traditional stem. These help the rider corner much better with improved feel of the front end, keep better balance in loose terrain, and feel more confident in steep terrain. A really tall bar or even a long steerer tube with a bunch of spacers or a stem riser would just be higher up without the Reversed offset, and as such will perform a lot differently. A really tall bar is also not ideal because it will move your hands quite significantly relative to the steering axis when adjusting bar role, and is more reliant on having a very strong hold at the bar clamp on the stem to keep the bar from slipping forward and back.

@bemorebikes could a similar angle be achieved by tilting the BMX bars closer to the rider?

Yes, but... the bars mounting point would still be infront of the steering axis so they will feel quite different.

The RR reduces reach by 60mm, making your bike feel like it was made in 2008!

Sam Pilgrim already did this. Watch his vid.

There is no AI, algorithm and programming unless it connects to a server and learns

Great stuff there, champ. A really insightful and obviously informed critique 👍

In fairness to be more bikes, it's an issue of scale. These things won't be flying out the door and small quantities will always cost more to produce. New products often start off a bit pricy but come down as they become more widely adopted (think axs for example).

Just buy a short stem $30 and 80mm riser bars for $40

@@janeblogs324 I do have a short stem and 50mm bars my friend has 80mm bars and feels pretty good.

@@casestudymtb yes I know but 400 is way out of line. I hope the company does well but really looks like a gimmick, can’t see enough people buying them for the price to lower.

And expensive! I realize it’s all machined, but $400?🤔👎🏻

No, different measurements, and this one came out first