Are All Stems Made Equal? (or will some not fit some bikes?)

joeyyeahyeah

Hi,

I'm thinking of fitting some new bars and a new stem to my 2012 Cube Ltd Pro. I wondered if, aside from length and bar clamp diameter, there are any other dimensions I should be aware of.

For example, I saw this... http://www.bike-discount.de/shop/k445/a ... black.html ...and wondered what the 1.5" related to.

All knowledge gratefully received ;-)

Cheers!

Joe

cooldad

The steerer tube size.

supersonic

Also look at bar clamp size. Most bars are 31.8 though nowadays.

schweiz

The 1.5" is the diameter of the fork steerer. I imagine your bike is 1 1/8 " so the stem you're looking at is too big.

The English description confuses matters by saying that the diameter is 1 1/8" but the German version says 1.5". Truativ make a 1 1/8 verssion of that stem

in white

http://www.bike-discount.de/shop/k445/a ... weiss.html

and black

http://www.bike-discount.de/shop/k445/a ... l?mfid=328

joeyyeahyeah

Ah- thought it might be. It's a bit confusing the way they've written it, though.

Cheers for the knowledge, folks!

On another note, has anybody had any experience of this stem?

supersonic

It's a big heavy lump that is against the light weight nature of your bike.

The Rookie

A reasonable weight for a stem for an XC bike like yours is around 130g, good around 115g, that is 170g, add that weight percentage to every component on your bike and you'd ruin it!

joeyyeahyeah

Yeah, I get that it's more robust. I also understand that my bike's more of a cross country bike.

But the EA30 that I've got currently weighs more (from specs I've seen), if only marginally, and I'm not looking to make it a super-light race bike. It's more a case of making it a bit friendlier towards more technical trails, I suppose.

Not looking to do anything particularly extreme, just a few jumps, maybe. Thought I might need something a bit more heavy-duty.

I'm gathering this might be overkill?

supersonic

Yes, you have an XC bike, not a jump bike

joeyyeahyeah

Sorry, what I mean is a red trail with some small potential jumps in it.

The Rookie

An XC bike ridden properly will cope fine with a red, mine does (Kraken in link in sig) and I'm not a 'good' rider, at best average.

Superstar or on-one stems, good weight, good price and suitable for your bike and plenty strong enough.

No point having a super strong stem and then trash forks and wheels and frame!

joeyyeahyeah

Excellent!

Thanks to everyone for the advice.

Joe