Bars, stems and seatposts

PeteinSQ

I want to upgrade the bars, stem and seatpost on my roadbike.

Currently I'm using the ones that I took off my old Lemond Etape which are Bontrager and a bit cheap and nasty. My frame on the other hand is quite smart (Monoc Quattro Pro) and I think it would look better with some more upmarket components.

I'm not really thinking of spending a vast fortune but it would be nice to get a carbon seat post (has to be 31.6) and I want the stem, bars and seatpost to all be made by the same brand so that they match.

So which brand and models would you go for? I'm prepared to spend about £200 on all three components but happy to spend less...

Wooliferkins

3T is worth a look.

maddog 2

have a look at the Spesh Pave post. Good value and very comfy. Big fan of Thomson too. You can pick up mint s/hand elite posts for much less than RRP. Alu though.

Stems - look at Thomson, Syntace, FSA (in no particular order)

Bars - dunno, not a fan of drops...

SDP

ritchey wcs for all 3 ..jobs a good 'un

chipperleenie

Out of those 3 pay most attention to the bars i.e. the part you are in contact with, the stem and seatpin make will not affect you much, just get ones with good clamping. I always go for four bolt stems,
Don't be fooled by carbon wrapped aluminium it looks good but often weighs more than a good aluminium.
With bars its the shape and style that is important for your riding position and comfort. This is a personal thing and all people prefer different style but the latest styles seem to be a more curved bar rather than anatmoical. They seem to have regressed to shapes similar to the old Cinelli 65's (showing my age there).

kozzo

SDP wrote:

ritchey wcs for all 3 ..jobs a good 'un

Exactly

redddraggon

kozzo wrote:

SDP wrote:

ritchey wcs for all 3 ..jobs a good 'un

Exactly

I'm not entirely convinced by the stems, they don't seem to have the best torsional stiffness - probably because the way the bolts are used.

synchronicity

chipperleenie wrote:

Out of those 3 pay most attention to the bars i.e. the part you are in contact with, the stem and seatpin make will not affect you much, just get ones with good clamping. I always go for four bolt stems,
Don't be fooled by carbon wrapped aluminium it looks good but often weighs more than a good aluminium.
With bars its the shape and style that is important for your riding position and comfort. This is a personal thing and all people prefer different style but the latest styles seem to be a more curved bar rather than anatmoical. They seem to have regressed to shapes similar to the old Cinelli 65's (showing my age there).

chipperleenie hits the nail on the head.

The bar is the most important - not much of it shows, so most novices are tempted to spend more on the post + stem. The best way is to get a comfortable bar. It's the part that you're in contact with so it matters most.

My favourite bars are 3t biomorphe / cinelli neomorphe and FSA wing pro compact. These have a very short reach & drop and flattened tops which I really like. But then I'm not keen on FSA stems as the front clamp eats thin walled bars.

From my experience, ITM makes good stems but their bars are kinda thin in the middle.

But there are tonnes of other bars I haven't tried. Perhaps if I wanted a standard setup I'd go with control tech because the bars, post and stem are all high quality bits of kit that won't fail.

kozzo

redddraggon wrote:

kozzo wrote:

SDP wrote:

ritchey wcs for all 3 ..jobs a good 'un

Exactly

I'm not entirely convinced by the stems, they don't seem to have the best torsional stiffness - probably because the way the bolts are used.

Not at all IMO and change from ITM to WCS was a great relief.

Each user - diferrent preferences...
In fact there is no clear answer

Anonymous

I have all FSA on my best bike and bloomin love it all!

3T were in the running too but just decided on the FSA because of the stripy bits having both red AND white as opposed to red OR white.

It's all about how it looks you know