Obviously time for Seth to make a DROPPER STEM.

This is actually really normal geometry to most dirt bikes. The weird geometry is just hidden with a gas tank and plastics which make it look normal.

To anyone who has ever ridden a motorcycle, this doesn't look weird at all. Nothing looks weird or unstable here, this is how dirt bikes work. I routinely extend handlebars up toward me with risers.

For those who think that 400$ price is too high. As a tall person (1.93m) I've always used XL frames. Because of long legs my saddle was absurdly high and thus the position was "long". Recently it caused pain in wrists and numbness in fingers - a lot of weight on my hands. When I first saw RR-stem, I was sure that this product is exactly what I need. I've ordered it as soon as possible. Today I’m after 3 days of muddy ascending and descending with RR Stem. What can I say? It is way better than I thought it could be. From the beginning riding position is absolutely natural. Cornering and stability is insane. Descending as told many times - exceptional. Even ascending is way better than with typical stem. No more pain, high comfort and great stability. And going back to the beginning - we pay hard cash for lighter parts, suspension tuning and many more things. I really fell that Bronson spend a lot of time designing and testing this stem. The change in the way that I am riding my bike is unbelievable. To sum up, yes this stem is a breakthrough. If you have opportunity just try it.

TRUE STORY: 1986 I left the subsidiary of Shimano, married their secretary, quit my Cat-1 road racing status and started riding mountain bikes. To my surprise I found it extremely difficult to climb on mountain bikes because my hands wanted to be in the road bike gum hood position when climbing. Unfortunately MTB H-Bars do not have such a position(s). So one day I decided to cut some old stems, shimmed them up and bolted them up on the ends of my H-Bars. The next day I want out to ride and discovered I could climb like a Cat-1 road bike pro but on a Mountain Bike...! Little did I know I just invented "BarEnds" and these weird looking handles were about to flip the entire MTB market on its head, and make me a rich man. So I called up my friend who we used to work together at the Japan group/Shimano and asked him to come on over to see my new invention, so maybe we can start our own business together with the $3,000 dollars his mother offered us if we started our own business together. For some time I've been telling him I wanted to start a bike biz and name it onZa... Anyways, he shows up and he sees these hideous metal rods sticking out at the end of the H-bars and says "DAN! No one is going to buy and put on those stupid ugly looking things on their mountain bikes. Sorry Dan, I'm not interested I'm going to keep my new Import job I just got." We then had a few beers and called it a day. About a month later, he calls me to tell me he is not happy at his new job, and wants to know if I made any improvements on my ugly invention? I said yes, come on down we'll pound a few beers and I tell you how much they've improved my mountain bike riding. Just before he went home he said "OK I'll ask my Mom for the $3,000 dollars and go 50/50 business partners and we'll use that name onZa. And just like that stem you are testing is exactly what we went through trying to sell BarEnds out of our car visiting bike shops all up and down California. The first bar-ends were hand made by a Porsche exhaust pipe maker. After a year of trying we only did $30K in sales... I was about to throw in the towel when the president of GT bicycles called us in our tiny kitchen office. Richard Long invited us to lunch and wanted to talk to us about our onZa bar-ends. When we met the next day Richard told us how his racing team has been using our bar-ends with great success racking up Cross-country wins. He then shocked us when he said he wanted to spec our onZa bar-ends OEM on two new models for the new year. The rest is onZa history. So yes, I think this ugly duckling of a stem is going to change the MTB industry. Great Job on Your Story, and I think you should partner up with this person and make your suggested improvement(s)! Sincerely, Dan Sotelo aka Mr onZa

I love the fact that you can really hear how annoyed and confused Seth was that he liked how it felt as he rode it 😂😂

I actually got a similar effect when I rode a true downhill bike for the first time. Super tall fork, kinda shorter reach, felt really nice. Then I went back to an enduro bike on the same descents, and felt so sketchy with the slammed handlebars

After neck injury I had to raise my stem with a 3'' extension. My bike looks weird but I can ride in comfort, and I never felt a compromise on performance (intermediate rider). Good to see that probably performance riders will gradually implement raised stem geometry, my bike will have nice company! :) Nice way to share how it takes time for people to accept change like with dropper post.

As someone who has raised my stem/handlebar for years (although not to this extreme), I never understood why people liked lowered handlebars. They're uncomfortable to ride on anything. If I wanted to lean forward while riding, I'd be riding a road bike. Thanks for finally putting an explanation to what was just a gut feel.

Simple fix for climbing: add a hinge and lockout that allows the stem to pivot forward and down into a more "standard" position. There are already designs that do this on triathlon bikes. When you get to the top, just flip it back up, lock it in place.

The stem just makes you sit up and not be pitched forward. That is especially helpful on descents and corners, your center of gravity is totally changed, further back which is more stable. Having the elbows bent is always key. My coach in the 1980's would whip us on our forearms with his riding crop as he passed in his car if our elbows were not bent. That makes you more agile on the bike no matter what. A dropper stem would be key. Climbing even non-tech stuff, if steep enough is always hard to keep the front wheel down. Great vid. I liked the discussion of trail. Many people have no idea about that. Thank You for making us think. 👍🏼🚲💯❤

Anytime I’ve seen interviews with Bronson he seems like the most chill dude. Very down to earth, obviously very smart, and able to prove his design by winning races. I’m 100% a fan.

They made a change like this on dirtbikes over the last 20 years. They moved to higher bars because overall they're better for handling fast corners, whoops, and jumps. They have the advantage of not needing to change body position as much when climbing because you're not pedaling, so you can keep your body in a better position especially with wider foot pegs they've added. But with mountain biking and pedaling up hills, maybe you're onto something with a dropper stem 🤔

I had the pleasure of meeting Bronson when he was still developing this he’s always been so sure of his product. So rad seeing you showcase his product 🙌🏻

I like the idea of this. Snowmobiles have risers similar to this and some are even adjustable in height and front to back. Makes for more comfortable stand up riding and gives you a little more leverage to throw the machine around. Would be awesome to see Seth on a sled. Only problem is he might get hooked!

Great vid !! Thank you for taking the time to make & upload it. This is super cool. I am always fascinated with the mountain bike world. I was an avid bicyclist my whole youth & young adult in the 90's , got a little messed up in a bike accident kinda toasted the bike (1995 GT hardtail with a ROCK SHOCK. )hung it all up.. Bikes have came so far in 30 years ! I would really dig going for a ride on a bike of today.

It almost looks like they are trying to take dirt bike steering geometry and put it in mountain bike geometry with that raise stem. Because the way you are describing your mountain bike handling now is pretty similar to a dirt bike. I really want to try one of these stems

It always brings me so much joy how excited Seth gets about something being potentially sketchy. It’s like, if you describe to him a situation that could cause him bodily harm, he’s trying to figure out how to ramp it up one more step. This resonates with me.

@Berm Peak Express Mech. Eng. here: the reason why the raised stem is better than the forward stem most MBKs use is because of three reasons. 1) As you said, trail on the front tyre is lower, but it's still positive and so you still have the caster angle to save your stability, as you showed. 2) The bars being closer to the steering axle allow you to be more precise in finding the apex of a turn, because you can see better where the tyre is without having to correct in your mind for it. With a forward stem, the bar is on the same line as the wheel's centre of rotation, and this line is parallel to the front fork. This forces you to "calculate" subconsciously how much you want to turn the bar to have the tyre do what you want. With a "raised and pulled back" stem, the bar is on the same axis as the fork, so you have a better visual correlation to your steering. It's the same mechanism motorbikes use. 3) Allows your posture to be straighter (a bit like a Dutch Omafiet or an Italian Cittadina) allowing you to more effectively see the corners better. A bit like in a Vespa. The problem with this setup is mainly on the power delivery and aerodynamics: a straighter seating position is more comfortable but it doesn't let you push the pedals as effectively, so you'll lose some power overall. Aerodynamically, the straighter sitting will increase the drag, lowering your top speed. Both of these issues become less important if you're doing short bursts of power and speeds aren't so high that you're running the Hour Record, so for Bikecrossing it's more than okay.

1) Thanks for the demonstration of how to see trail- I've read a dozen descriptions on it but having you whip out a yardstick finally made it all gel, now I'm going to spend a few hours checking my contraption bikes. 2) The price isn't unreal in cycling at all, you could spend $400 on stems or $1000 on pulley wheels all day if you really wanted. 3) The ride video at the end was great!

Loving the raw riding footage at the end, just gives your real time thoughts and reactions

I gotta say it, I never, EVER, have been mountain biking.. always thought it was cool though. I don't know what it is about your videos, they keep me so drawn to the point where I feel like I have been riding for YEARS and now I need to know what it feels like to ride with this stem lmao Keep up the kick-ass content!

I don't ride trails or off road , but I want a taller version of that stem as a Commuter bike stem , I'm older and my back does not like being bent forward , and everything you said makes perfect sense to me from when I was younger and used to ride off-road , there's nothing unstable about that stem

I’ve seen the inventor at Greer. The reason it works, is again keeping your elbows bent and it forces you to drive your weight through your feet. Your hands are too high to put any weight on your hands. I adopted this body position a long time ago while I was being coached by a downhill guy, deeply bent knees, and no weight on the hands that way you can push the bike and move the bike around more just maintaining better contact with the ground when you need traction and also being able to pull it up into you when you want to float over stuff. So bent knees, leaning over at the waist chest down, elbows up an bent. Basically these handlebars force you to drive the weight through the feet and keep the weight off the hands.

I changed my hardtail’s stem and bars to a bmx style, around 4-5 inch rise, mainly for comfort, and when I took the first corners I was stunned. So sharp, so stable. I probably lost a bit of control low speed but it feels nice. For a cruiser, city bike, I’d go even taller.

Mondraker used to do a zero reach stem when they introduced their forward geometry about 10+ years ago. It didn't quite look so goofy, but also didn't catch on.... Didn't have the same rose but would be interesting to do back to back testing.

I vote for the dropper stem. Let's see a prototype! Interesting concept; good video. Thanks for all your hard work on the channel.

Ive been using a raised stem on locked suspension mountain bike for like 3-4 years, but for normal cardio riding so the back and arms hurt less and im upright more, time/air resistance/speed is relevant since its for training/recreation. The thing is that the stem really needs to be super strong for down hill so it wont bend and flex. Like you notice the center of mass moves back a little bit, so its easier on the front.

This was fascinating, as a non-biker and an engineer looking to get into the hobby. Not having much experience with mountain biking but a lot of experience with mechanics in motion, it doesn't surprise me that this worked. What does surprise me is why it seems so surprising to mountain bikers that this would work - probably just my lack of experience but it would make sense cornering would be better as you would have more fine-tuned control over your steering inputs even if its on a subconscious level.

this is one of those things with bikes that shows how silly we are as consumers. Technically, if you wanted the raddest descender possible you'd ride a bike with moto geometry and handling, just scaled to bicycle weights. Dirt bikers have put in a shit tom of work making two wheels as fast and stable as possible, and mtb'rs are over here trying to reinvent the wheel or stretching and adapting road bike theory to mtb just to arrive back to where motos have been for decades.

I liked both your ideas. An in between size or adjustable sounds really great.

This is what I’ve been wanting since I started riding MTB. As a motocross/enduro dirt bike racer, I feel like this would put my body in a more comfortable riding position and seems like it would give me better feel and front end stability. Not sure life long cyclist would say the same. For me, this seems like what I have been searching for.

Every benefit mentioned here reminds me of how I felt when I put a 60mm riser bar on my bike. My downhill confidence skyrocketed and I have to sit on the top of my saddle for long steep climbs. My bars look a little goofy too. Definitely worth it.

I'm new to the channel, so first thank you. Thank you for the educational content and your recent collaboration with the off road community. Second, I hope you patented the dropper stem idea.

You guys should try riser bars. They get you plenty of rise (a few inches) but without reducing reach, and -- this is important -- you're less likely to get popped in the mouth because the mouth-buster (ie stem) is lower than your hands.

You should start timing all your different test runs down that trail both so we can see and so you can see the difference with parts like this and the more mundane and normal ones aswell

I remember watching a Remy Metailler vid where he said that most intermediate/advanced riders need to stand up more on their bikes when descending (stand taller, I think he said); it seems like this stem forces that approach. Very interesting.

Hi Seth. Been watching your channel for awhile, since before you moved to your new place and started building your trails. Anyways way back then I had came across a video on how to get maximum steering/handling . Basically having your hand in line with the center of your steering tube/fork tube would give you maximum control. going the same distance forward or behind that point would have the same effect. I had a couple of bikes, older MTBs with long stems straight flat bars, and cruiser bikes with big swept back bars. Between the the bikes the distance from center of the steer tube, and my hand where very close to the same distance to and fro, and to my surprise the handling was pretty much the same. Then with a bike with a short stem and long bars with a sweep I was able to get the bars grip, and my hand placement inline with the steer tube. and yes what a huge difference it did make. In the video i was watching, it was geared towards downhill racing, and how and why pro's run short stems and wide bars. This is exactly the approach I took with my fatbike, and the result was fantastic!! So when I seen this video of yours I thought, well of course that stem works, why wouldnt it? Although I was/and still am a bit tripped out on the height of the stem. I do understand the bit about allowing your arms to be "soft" and not stretched and locked, but that stem is like a sky scraper!! But I guess if you look at BMX race bikes your hands are pretty much sky high ,and thats how its been since the dawn of time. Anyways I wish I could find that old video

Old 1980's 10-speeds had that down sweeping "U" on each handle bar for a reason. On flat or declines, I used to rest my hands on the top of the bars where they are close to the stem, so my body could remain more upright. You are correct that a longer stem assists in control on the decline, but on an incline, in order for you to have your arms in a position that remains strong, you need to lean forward and your hands have to be in a lower position. On an incline, the front tire naturally is going to be closer to your chest. Placing your hands on the lower sections of "U" allowed you to move your body angle forward, so your body was close to the same position as it was on a flat or decline. As the bike angle changes, you naturally want to keep your body angle the same, so as to maintain balance, power and control, and minimize muscle strain and fatigue. The extended stem is a tradeoff. For declines, it is advantageous. For inclines, it is not. The engineering trick is to redesign the handlebars to either be repositionable on the fly, of better yet offer two different hand position heights, if you want a bike that can handle both inclines and declines with close to equal efficiency.

Been doing this for years with super stubby stems and tall riser bars. This just looks like that idea turned to 11 and I'm here for it.

I rode Bmx mostly years ago and I would try to keep my fork and bars aligned. To me it seems very similar to that unique stem. High rise and not to forward. It’s almost like setting up a mountain bike like a Bmx, (well in my mind at least). Keep up the great vids, always a great watch

I'm in my mid 60's.. my riding is a bit less adventurous, a bit slower than it used to be, and I am on an electric bike. I spend more time sitting on the saddle as my legs can't hold up to standing on the pedals for so long.. This changed my body position and put more weight on my wrists and shoulders, so I fitted an adjustable stem with the pivot axis directly above the steerer tube, and started adjusting the stem a bit further back each ride, waiting for it to feel unstable.. my bars are now straight above the steering axis, about 100mm higher than they used to be, and I haven't felt any instability. My wrists and shoulders love it.. Yes, climbing is not as easy and you end up with your elbows very bent, but the downhill and riding on level ground is fine. Obviously my usage and riding style is different to most of your (younger) viewers, but that's been my experience with bars in pretty much the position given by that stem, so I am not too surprised you found it ok on the downhills.. Dropper stem? It would have to be on parallel links not a simple pivoted "lever" (to keep the brake lever position sensible in both / all positions), and the motion would probably have to be damped. The latch mechanism would have to be VERY secure... but hey, what's life without a challenge!!?

Had installed 100mm raised handlebar on very short stem year ago in order to increase comfort by getting more bent elbows. When i have planned that i thought thats obvious - unlocked elbows must be more comfortable than classic sport-like pose that came to us with many other things from bicycle sports. We riding for fun, so we can change anything to get the new expirience without reference to current cycling fashion trends. There are no reason to spend four hundred trying it. Chinese tall handlebars are extremly cheap. For example, despite the fact that it is generally accepted that a city bike should have 28 inch wheels with narrow tires my city bike have only 24" wheels with fattest tires i found for it. Because when you ride for fun around the city, you often have to make 90° and sharper turns, and as a motogymkhana participant in the past, I can say that fast turning on small thick wheels is twice as pleasant as on large narrow ones if not more.

An issue with the whole caster, trailing, steering axis explanation. It doesn’t matter that the hands are leading the steering axis. All that matters is the axis is ahead of the contact patch. The hands are disconnected. You could have the bars way behind the axis and steer it like a rudder, it would still be inherently stable. It would not be easy to ride due to physical positioning, but it would not affect the stability of the bike.

This is actually really interesting. I think I might know why this thing performs the way it does. I have this issue on my downhill bike a lot, when the handlebars are lower and in front I feel weird going on super steep stuff or jumps cause my body position is too far forward so I’m not as balanced on the bike. When I lean back it gets better but my arms are almost locked out so I have less control. When that stem is on, it pushes your weight back forcing your center of mass to be farther back on the bike. This is why corners are really nice with it, too much weight on the front in a corner gets sketchy but if you move your weight back it gets much more smooth (especially at high speed). That’s why he said he felt like he couldn’t keep the front down when climbing, cause his center of mass was farther back on the bike. This is my take anyway. Not gonna lie, I’d totally buy that lol

Always love your evolving music choices, very interesting vid

This did not look unstable to me. As a trained automotive tech the idea of positive caster creating stability is well understood. If what you suggest is true, I suggest bike enthusiasts like yourself have a lot of learning to do before they understand simple suspension geometries. EDIT: You still don't explain why positive caster works. Inclination of the steering axis to a positive caster cause the turning of the wheel to RAISE the height of the frame. This allows gravity to force the steering wheel to want to return to center by design. It isn't the leading-following like you describe.

It makes so much sense to me, for 15 years I’ve been saying to put a smaller wheel on the back when you go down hill and this stem has the same effect of raising the front of the bike.

This actually makes a ton of sense for descending. However, I think the ideal stem height probably varies by bike size and rider height which is probably why Seth struggled to climb with it.

It's a lot like bar risers on a dirt bike. As a dirtbiker I think it's a great idea and see the benefits. Watching you ride it, your stance in corners is a lot like a dirt bike. It seems like mountain bikes (especially downhill bikes) are getting more and more like dirt bikes... for good reason.

I'm still riding my 2002 norco torrent size small and I'm 6 feet tall I've got a Funn adjustable stem that I got almost right away and still love riding this bike. Great video thank you for your interesting and fun information.

I’ve found it’s always easier to notice when something is an improvement by going back to what you had before. The deficiencies the new product addresses become extremely obvious

FINALLY, FINALLY, FINALLY we have a discussion about risers! I had no idea this was a thing & I've been wishing my bike had one. I can see how one of these would take a lot of stress off the back and wrists.

great video, and great idea. If you're in a downhill race and everyone else's bike is optimized for climbing, but you only optimize for descent, you have an advantage, simple as that. love it

I love your view on different mountain biking products, so open minded and smart!!

Seth what I love about you is you engage so well with the viewer, not only for the bike nerds but for those who aren’t. You make the videos and explain things how I wish I could. You the man

Love the riding footage of expecting the worst and immediately being surprised 😂

I know I am nobody in the bike world. However I will say from over 12 years as a bike officer and a kid who grew up roughly the same time frame as you good sir. It does remind me more of the BMX style as far as body position, and from riding years of 10 hour shifts and experiencing neck issues from the more stretched out and not as upright, for general riding, it almost makes me want to try a BMX style handle bar to see. I know from riding dual sport motorcycles since the age of 14 as well, so many guys put bar risers on there dirt bike and dual sports, and essentially, I put some riser bars on my work mountain bike. It helped with the neck stress, but this is so interesting to me. Obviously, you know my profession I retired from, so this is out of my budget, but it does make me wonder for the average rider who is not doing the extreme riding, how much more comfortable this could potentially be. Watch yourself come over the bridge as you was standing in a more normal stance, not an aggressive bike stance, but more relaxed stance and you look very normal and relaxed in that stance, not as bent over and more upright. (roughy 12 minute mark) Thanks again for sharing this with us all, and I truly hope you can do some more testing and be able to share more information with us later on down the line. Keep up the great work sir. Dale

I'm actually really surprised that this hasnt been a thing before. Been putting risers on snowmachine and atvs for a long long time. I'm not sure about dirtbikes as I dont own one but I know for turning and several other points you made like being able to push the bike away from you or pull back, it 100% makes sense. Even my old bmx I was atleast able to change the position of the bars to angle forward or back and they were on their own cradle/riser just by the shape of the bars.

A dropper stem can actually be a brilliant idea👏 Would love to watch how it performs 😃

This makes sense to me. I come from a BMX background and I was comfortable with the raised handlebars on a BMX. Especially with jumping! But it has taken me awhile to get use to MTB and the more forward body position versus the more neutral body position a raised bar gives you. Yes the forward position helps with climbing but Seth figured that out with an Axis bar dropper 😜

I know this video is 4 months old, so I hope you read comments after the fact. This seems like exactly what I have been looking for. Long story short, I used to ride in the 90's, got hurt, couldn't ride for 20 years, recently put a bike back together (2001 specialized Stump jumper FSR XC Comp). Issue is this wasn't my old bike, I used to ride a 2001 Stump jumper XC comp, that I bought new, and it was the correct size for me, 6'3" 190 lbs at the timer. 20 years later, I am 6'2" 240 lbs and this FSR frame isn't as large as my old hard tail was. I was out of work during my injury and recovery for 14 years in that time, things were tight, I found this bike at a pawn shop near me for $300 so I had to buy it, even though I knew it wasn't as large a frame as I really probably needed. So I added a Thompson elite seat post to it, to give me some height to pedal, But now, my bars need to come up at least an inch maybe more, so to me, this looks like a great solution. I ordered a Bike Stem Riser Bike Fork Stem Extender riser system so I can add or remove inches and put it together where I want, I don't have it yet and I am not 100% I can even install it or it will work on my bike. Will this mount easily to my 2001 fsr? Is it only available in one size? How do I best determine the correct height for my bars? If you or one of your followers reads this and can help with some info for an old guy 20 years out of the loop, that would be awesome. Love your content. Thanks

The dropper stem is what I was thinking mid video. I remember climbing a huge accent and my chest was literally on my stem. I almost never complete that climb but this time.

Been running extra spacers, short stem, and higher rise bars. It’s not an aggressive pedaling position, but I’m just here the downhill party anyway. Now I’m wondering if I should go taller! Great explanation of the geometry and function in this video!

Great reporting love the transparent talk you get from out of your actual thoughts. I subscribed.

You've always been good at conveying a point, and selling it well. Nicely done.

I’ve always wanted my bars raised should build my own thanks dude off the confidence

This makes sense to me. After I started experimenting on my custom build, I've always found that putting my handlebars higher makes the handling better. And I also can see how this is not going to take off for a while, the cycling community in general is extremely opposed to anything that doesn't seem conventional and many people find all kinds of reasons and excuses for why something is not a good idea without even trying it. Also, I think the correct way to address this would be in bike geometry, that is start making bikes with taller headtubes.

When I got back to trail biking a couple of years ago after such learning as I did on old full-rigid frames, the thing that caught my eye was how people were biking with elbows up and out, making a horizontal "iron circle" that would kill my (weak) shoulders. I like my elbows down and in where they can compress by bending and absorb shock and a riser bars are much nicer for me. Also I can have my head up, which is nice, and it's easy to move my weight fore and aft by bending or extending arms. It's maybe harder to get off the back for wheelies, so there's that. If you're controlling your weight (easier to do with an upright posture), steering leverage is just about the width of the bars, if you had a steering wheel like a car you could put your hands on it anywhere. But anyway you don't fast corner by forceably twisting the stem, you lean the bike, the trail angle/direction changes and around you go. If you're having trouble on the uphills, try leaning forward with elbows close to your hips and pull the bars towards your belt, standing upright like a regular power lifter. Narrower bars (and a shorter frame) are going to makes that easier. Of course I am an Old Guy who rides relatively gently so if what you want to do is rattle your brain free-falling down the chutes, maybe this new stuff is nicer for you. In summary and in conclusion, different strokes for different folks.

That's actually amazing how it centralizes your weight more on the bike by having the need to keep your arms bent. That's why climbing seems sketchy. There's just a couple more pounds near your seat that you wont notice for awhile when riding with that stem so it might feel like you want to fall backwards. But with that added height to the stem you would actually be able to more easily dig the front end into the ground by allowing yourself into more of a stanced angle. The Stem seems like it would allow for a lot more aggressive riding which is surprising because that thing looks like a tower and in theory you want to be centered over your bike. Well it turns out that this is what it does. For some one taller like myself it would really feel like I've got my elbows by my side instead of leaning as much as I have to. I need one of these things!

I saw Bronson ride it at the Vail Lake Enduro, definately takes some getting used to the appearance. Kudos to him for pursuing it and driving thoughts.

I remember Gary Fisher (the man not the company) in about the early 90s came out with short stem/slightly longer top tube geometry for his cross country hardtails. Similar concept, nowhere as extreme as that stem. Felt great on singletrack.

I'm not even a mountain biker, but your reviews are that captivating I genuinely get curious about the sport i've never tried.

Not only did I find your video interesting but it opens your mind to the possibilities of this design . Try it on an e-bike , you might find the assent will eliminate that awkward feel you talked about . Our bodies are capable of adjusting therefore adapting to change . Bottom line , if it reduces your time in a race it’s a good thing . If it makes it more comfortable for a non racer it’s a good thing .

I think this is super interesting to look at from the perspective of body position on the bike… with a super high rise stem like this, it should naturally put a rider standing taller on their bike. Which is exactly where we should be when riding downhill. We have a natural tendency to bend too much at the hips creating instability from improper weight dispersion… I’m gonna keep mulling over this 🤔

Very interesting video. Do you think you loved the shorter reach aspect the most, or the taller stack? I'm curious what the revel's stock reach measurement is compared to your sage. I'm also curious if this would improve the ride of the sage or if it would make the reach too short.

I recently came back to Mountain Biking using my Trek Superfly 7 hardtail from a period of only riding Motorbikes and the main thing that I found really hard to get used to was the riding position but specifically how hunched forward I am on the AM bike. This guy is onto something.

I think most of what you are experiencing with this stem can equally be achieved using higher rise bars than are typically fitted on modern mtbs. I use a Deity 50mm riser bar on my Enduro bike and yes it certainly is better when descending and just needs some body position adjustment to equal the climbing performance of the original lower rise bars. Whether you want to use some or all of the extra rise to reduce effective reach depends on how you rotate the bars. I use mine with the rise maximum perpendicular to the ground.

Try to remember that today’s gear evolved from accepted norms like mag wheels, hard noses&tails, dial shifters without detents, toe cups, 1 piece cranks, 26” wheels, shifter levers situated below the crotch that castrated upon peddle slipping, banana seats, HIGH WHEELERS, steel everything and the list goes on. CAD, stress analyzing simulations, knowledge about leverage, kinematics, physiological form improvements, and biomechanical engineering are all blowing the doors open to bigger and better designs that improve upon existing tech. Don’t fear progress when experts are championing their own innovations; fear progress when the Titans of the Bicycle industry start marketing their “ground breaking designs”. Thanks for the kickass stuff you put out and best of luck growing the channel. -Castor

I love it when bike bros "discover" things that are common in the motorcycle world :)

Bro! I put a cannondale tredwell riser bar on my brand new Habit HT 3 and I couldn't love it more. It's about 100mm taller. I hadn't watched your video prior to doing it but, I knew it would improve the bike the moment I conceived the thought! Crazy!!!

I had something very similar to this in the early 2000's, my dad bought me and my brother one each for our dirt jumpers as we were both small for the bikes at the time, loved it at the time.

Mountain biking is so much fun and I’m very new to it, and Seth, You do such a great job explaining everything which is so helpful for people like me who are just getting into it!!

Been riding with the RR Stem for a few months. It’s absolutely badass. Glad they are getting exposure here. Hopefully, this catches on and becomes normalized.

I recently purchased a new bike with a reach 60mm greater than I was familiar with, I ended up with sciatic nerve problems due to this. My solution was fitting 75mm high rise bars and a 35mm stem. It is not quite as unusual as this stem but it definitely not the norm and a superb solution to my problem, and as an added bonus my bike looks extremely unique "Performance before Fashion" is all that matters.

Thanks for explaining that to us, as a motorcycle rider and a bike rider this helps me understand it a bit more. My mountain bike doesn’t look “normal” I have shorter arms so I installed some generic stem raiser. People on the trails make fun of how it looks all the time, and this old man makes fun of all of the younger riders as I beat them down the trail. I fly downhill! And yes incline is a bit harder but who raises up hill? The fun is on the downhill for me 🤷🏻‍♂️

Seth needs to file a patent on the Dropper Stem immediately.

Seth, this is sooo satisfying, because my friends used to tease me with old man jokes for raising and shortening my stem all these years. It turns out our bodies were designed to perform upright instead of seated in a chair. Beach Cruisers had this from the beginning! Great analysis!

Like your unbiased approach to this, well, strange looking product ! That's why I return to watching Berm Peak regularly- you give it a shot. I have to say, remember when you were a kid , messing around with your bike thinking, , "Yea, if I do this, I can make it look like a chopper, that'll be cool, oh yea" , , ,Is Bronson still that kid ! ? But if the results work for him with what he is doing, who are we to judge? From a marketing/aesthetic view, I think it will be hard to push without a try before you buy approach, looking a bit grumpy, kind of like turning your sleek, aggressive looking MTB into a Ladies Hybrid bike and with a huge price tag ! How would you manual with this thing anyway without chewing on your bars ! Still, great to see people out there messing around with ideas, putting in the time, and throwing out there some really well engineered products like this, it's allot of work, but this is how cutting edge new product is born, -Props to him. Troy

Well, zero millimetre stems had been a thing already twenty years ago, integrated into the fork's top crown, in downhill, just as your experience indicated - back then people also used to ride sufficiently risen bars and not that slightly bent crosscountry things they grasp on nowadays. Had the same effect - hightened handlebars without any rake in regards of the fork's shaft. God, I'm old. Great video by the way - subbed. 👌

I've been running an extra 3 inches of stem height with spacers and the shortest stem possible for 4 years. This stem seems like exactly what I've been hoping for!

I’m thinking about this like 4WD suspension. If you mount your shock higher and add a longer spring, you can gain articulation. Your higher mounting point adds upward articulation, and the longer spring (like the longer mtb stem) adds articulation downwards. Very cool!

Last night I was wondering if one of those existed. Then today this video was suggested to me. I love it. It makes perfect sense and it definitely does not look unstable. Motorcyclists are always raising, lowering or moving their handle bars a little forward or backwards to the position that feels best for them. It makes sense that bicyclists would want to do the same thing.

In 1985, a team of five Geoff Apps' designed 'Cleland' off-road bikes fitted with CW mini riser-bars competed in a downhill competition at Small Dole in England. The 'Cleland' bikes rode like BMX bikes fitted with 650B wheels and won against all the other teams using standard MTBs. It's crazy that nearly forty years on this geometry has still not gone mainstream, unlike Apps pioneering use of 650B and 700C wheels.

This didnt seem like a bad idea from the beginning. It effectively gives you a more upright body position. It makes good sense, because the most remarcable difference between my modern gravity bike and my old xc bike is the geometry which makes me feel im not throwing myself head first into the trail. So maybe more of that should be good. It really sucks that nobody seems to have yet experimented a really wide range of different geometries and really found some optimamized geometry

Having my bars higher has been much better on my neck both up and definitely down. I rode with a 6 inch fork tube extender with an ultra short stem for years with a 3 inch riser bar. Then I bought a new fork and chose not to cut it. it is just as high as my old fork with the 6" extension. I put something like 10 or 11 spacers on the fork tube to take up the space. I put the same ultra short stem on it, and I even have a four inch riser handle bar. I love it. Downhills don't scare me as much when I had the lower bar position.

My old Batavus city bicycle had a mechanism in the stem that allowed it to be altered on the fly. It did work with sort of a parallelogram mechanism, so in the lowest position the stem would stick out forward from the head, and in the top most position it'd be basically dead straight over the head. This same mechanism would also allow you to rotate the handle bar itself. This being an up-right city bicycle the whole adjustable stem was more of a comfort feature than anything else. The handle bar was a swept back model to begin with, so the hand position was always behind the head regardless. Unless you really dropped the handle bar down in order to get some sort of sketchy tuck going on.

I had to get a larger rise stem because the geometry of my enduro was destroying my shoulders. the only thing the shop had was an adjustable one. It raised the bars and brought them in. For me, my riding improved and the handling was much better. If i’m not mistaken, i think it will adjust to almost vertical, it might be worth experimenting with as a cheaper option. If it feels sketchy, find what works best for you, and order a solid stem that matches that geometry. Just a thought.

Very interesting. As someone who hasn’t been riding very long, my first thought on seeing that is that it looks really stable.

Most riders likely couldn't care less but I think the whole concept is very interesting and it does create more questions and "what ifs." I would be very interested in any follow ups on this stem or other experiments with bike/steering geo. Nice job, Seth, of controlling the skepticism and being as objective as possible. Well put together I'm no bike mechanic but I love knowing how things work.