Stem Testing Round 1, 19 Stems

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drainyoo
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by drainyoo

Why would anyone in their right mind buy a fake or knock-off bike component? To save money? That's just ridiculous, especially since you can get real, good quality parts with RD and warranties behind them for affordable prices.

I think it would be absurd to include fakes in a test like this. They're irrelevant.

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velonista
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by velonista

kulivontot wrote:
velonista wrote:

Is there any reason why your tests don't include a single "knock-off" Chinese carbon stem?



I'm guessing it's because fair wheel bikes doesn't stock or sell them? FWB is a store not Tour magazine. They really don't have any obligation to test every single item on the planet, especially if it encourages you to purchase a product from another vendor...


So what you're really saying is the ultimate aim of these tests is to sell brands of stems (and bars) that the tester's employer stocks in their store!

Hmmmmmmm! No agenda bias there! Right?

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drainyoo
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by drainyoo

There are a few stems in the test that Fairwheel doesn't sell. It's probably more about which stems they could get in time for the test.

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velonista
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by velonista

:laughat:
drainyoo wrote:Why would anyone in their right mind buy a fake or knock-off bike component? To save money? That's just ridiculous, especially since you can get real, good quality parts with RD and warranties behind them for affordable prices.

I think it would be absurd to include fakes in a test like this. They're irrelevant.

Adam Ant wrote:...Goody two, goody two, goody goody two shoes...Subtle innuendoes follow...There must be something inside...
:lol:

Mackers
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by Mackers

So you don't actually have an answer...

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velonista
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by velonista

Mackers wrote:So you don't actually have an answer...


It's not obvious who your question is addressed to. But since it directly follows my last post, I'll seize the opportunity to reiterate what I already said:

velonista wrote:...Because...there's no denying they work just as effectively as anything you care to compare them to...

kulivontot
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by kulivontot

There's close to 20 stems here representing some of the most high performance models available on a fairly professional test bench. Yes, there is some bias in choosing which models to test but at the same time they're still a bunch of choices available and a lot of good data! I find no evidence that there's any fudging of data here nor any reason for FWB to fabricate data.

kulivontot
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by kulivontot

There's close to 20 stems here representing some of the most high performance models available on a fairly professional test bench. Yes, there is some bias in choosing which models to test but at the same time they're still a bunch of choices available and a lot of good data! I find no evidence that there's any fudging of data here nor any reason for FWB to fabricate data.

drainyoo
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by drainyoo

velonista wrote:...Because...there's no denying they work just as effectively as anything you care to compare them to...


Says who, you?

Why would anyone want to make a case for fake bike parts? There's no logic to it.

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velonista
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by velonista

drainyoo wrote:...There's no logic to it.



Says who? You?

drainyoo
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by drainyoo

Oh jeez, I'm moving on.

Thanks to Madcow and Fairwheel for the testing. Some great stuff here.

wingguy
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by wingguy

velonista wrote:Hmmmmmmm! No agenda bias there! Right?


Dude, I think it's pretty simple, if you want to buy your stems from criminals, then buy your stems from criminals - but you have absolutely no right to expect that legitimate bike dealers should validate choices for you. FWB don't owe you anything, and they sure as hell don't owe anything to the forgers who are piggybacking on the work and investment of genuine cycling companies. You want forgeries to be tested alongside genuine products? Build your own test rig and do it yourself.



Back on topic, cool test! I've never liked carbon wrapped designs and it's nice to see that they really are crap :wink: OTOH, I also wonder how much difference it really makes. The only stems I've ridden that I thought were flexy enough to be detrimental (or even readily noticeable) to a ride are some old 2 bolt designs and Look's genuinely piss-poor new Aerostem.

Ozrider
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by Ozrider

As the title goes - Stem Testing Round 1, I'm sure there will be a round 2

The FWB tests on cranks and hubs and now stems are a great source of useful info and unlike many other publications give accurate weights and the pros and cons of each product tested.

Thanks for the effort Madcow, I'm looking forward to your handlebar test as well.

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Last edited by Ozrider on Mon Mar 03, 2014 10:52 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Marin
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by Marin

Thanks again for doing the test!

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madcow
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by madcow

wassertreter wrote:
What's not obvious to me, however, is what the results mean for real world riding. Does a stiffer stem make you measurably faster?


No in this case stiffer is not necessarily faster. However stiffer results in better feedback and tracking of the bike and generally a better handling bike. To be totally honest I doubt that the stem alone makes that much difference as well. However when you add up deflection from a stem, handlebar, steerer tube, frame etc... the differences can be quite dramatic.

velonista wrote:
Is there any reason why your tests don't include a single "knock-off" Chinese carbon stem? Of course, there is no inherent anti-bias against them on the tester's part! And there's certainly no conflict of interest in regard to any undisclosed relationship between an authorized dealer and the makers of some of the name-brand stems on test! Perish the thought! Right?


Yes there are plenty of reasons we didn't include any. Mainly because we don't support the counterfeit market, just the same as we don't support buying and selling of stolen bikes. I have no interest in validating what they do by including them in any of our testing.

As for biases, I never claimed to be unbiased in our reviews/tests, in fact I claim the opposite. Our reviews clearly have a section of "opinions" Obviously opinions are biased since it's based on what I like and dislike about each item. The testing and numbers section though is not biased, as the results are whatever they are.

velonista wrote:
So what you're really saying is the ultimate aim of these tests is to sell brands of stems (and bars) that the tester's employer stocks in their store!


Again, that's incorrect. Having been in business for over 40 years we have accounts with virtually every manufacturer in the industry. I can't think of a single brand of stem that isn't available to us. So no it's not to promote anyone over the other, as we can sell virtually any stem on the market. In fact we regularly choose to test things that we don't generally stock and when we feel items do well we may add them to our stock. So it does benefit us to test things that aren't our general stock items.

by Weenie


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