Straitline Stem
Price: £99.99
From: Hotlines
Tested: 12 months
More info: www.straitlinecomponents.com
Review: Singletrack magazine – Issue 38
There’s something to be perversely admired about a company that kicks convention in the teeth and smiles doing it, and Canadian company Straitline have a lot of shattered enamel on their 5.10s. To start with they’ll take £100 off you for the privilege of owning their stem. Which is a helluvalot of money.
But for your ton of wedge you get a stem that not only looks the part but is also cleverly made. The part in question is that of a stem that can withstand any amount of abuse you may throw at it while looking looking like something fell to Earth from the Death Star. Whether that look does anything for you I leave to your judgement, or lack of.
Personally I like its sleek but muscular lines. The clever stuff comes in the form of the way the stem clamps to the steerer. By using a wedge that is tightened from above, rather than from the side, Straitline reckon that there’s no chance of crushing your steerer and it’ll clamp down harder than anything else out there. Almost as a side benefit it means it’s knee friendly and looks different.
Overall: Yes it’s £100 but top marks to Straitline for making something so well engineered and uncompromising.
Sim
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I got one cheap off CRC, stiff as Peter North it is.
Its a thomson wedge on its side…
Yawn, nothing new
yet another blindingly un-insightful product review from STW. It looks like they just copied the text from the Straightline website.
geetee1972, it’s a bit of metal that holds your handlebars on. How much more insightful than this review were you looking for?
Geetee What would you want it to say? Seriously do you want us to put on a Dyno or something?
well I’d like to know what lengths it’s available in, bar sizes catered for and I guess weight?
I’ve got ones of these. It’s beautiful but the wedge design doesn’t work, the wedge seems to get siezed to the steerer and requires a bit of hammer work to tap loose, not ideal!
I’d like to know if the wedge system actually provides any material benefit – how does it actually work; does it stop your bars getting knocked of centre more effectively; when they do get knocked off centre how easy is it to put them back without tools (which we all have to do from time to time); how easy is it to do with tools; how much does it weigh, lenghts available, is it available in 25.4mm and 31.8mm; colours; availability of spares? **** me it’s not hard to think of a whole bunch of things that we might like to know as consumers and which we shouldn’t have to make you, the professional reviewer, aware of.
These reviews are from the mag. We don’t do highly tech spec reviews.. we never have.. They are dull and a waste of space since anyone can google all that guff and paper space in the mag is much better filled with our thoughts and opinions. Sorry you disagree.
Well it was your thoughts and opinions on how well the wedge system actually worked that I was specifically looking for.
£100 for a logo? If it looked like Dita von Teese (scaled down ideally) I’d buy. Otherwise it’s 15 crates of lager at Sainsbury’s.
Wedge system seemed to work well. Apparently they stole the idea from moto x.
I had a 70mm stem and it held the bars and let me steer. Wasn’t particularly light or pleasing to look at. Sold on eBay for £30!
It’s available in standard and OS bar size. Spares are easy to get (quick reply from Straitline). It’s meant to hold the steerer more firmly without the risk of crushing, though anyone with an ounce of sense wouldn’t overtighten stem bolts anyway, would they?
£100 is a lot for a stem. I’m using a Bonty Big Earl stem now that was a tenner. It’s lighter too and feels just as tough. Each to their own.
phutphutend, you take one of the bolts and screw it into the middle hole, that loosens the wedge.
All you need to know is it’s distributed by Hotlines innit 😉
Keep up the “reviews”, i say. Gawking at kit is a welcome distraction from work and if i see anything that grabs my intention i can always do a bit of my own googlebrowsing (further, welcome, distraction :-)) or post here with a Q. Easy.
geetee1972 if you really do need all that info about a stem then I suggest you get out more and introduce yourself to Alcohol and Women!
Its a stem FFS!!!! And a rather nice one at that!
it’s a normal stem review what i think you missed out the COMPLETE pain in the ARSE it is to remove the wedge!
your meant to have a threaded bolt to come with the stem to feed into the middle whole between the two clamping bolts to force the wedge up.. i’m yet to see one, as someone pointed out this causes the wedge to jam in and make removing it the greatest pain in the arse you can imagine!
You don’t need a third bolt – you use one of the clamp bolts – RTFI!