Gnarmac bike – yes. All stock from Spesh. Thinking of pimping the bars soon, though.
Off road – no. Until RockShox start making bars and stems, I can’t see it happening!
Bar and stem yes (Thomson). I would have a matching post if dropper posts didn’t make things more complicated.
I have a thing about matching certain parts due to country of origin (to a degree when possible). American frame has to have an american headset (Chris King) and american bar and stem is a bonus. If I had a Canadian frame I’d be inclined to stick some Chromag stuff on it. Biritish frame I’d have to be a hope headset and stem. All a bit nuts really.
I also like to see matching brand of forks and shock. The same goes for tyres and rims.
Wouldn’t even cross my mind that they need to match brands. I can sort of see you might prefer a particular colour but even that doesn’t bother me. Whatever works and whatever is on sale.
Nope. Priorities here are cost, weight, feel and strength, not in that order just a nice balance of all. Colour sort of slots in afterwards. I have ended up with a full Bearclaw cockpit on the Covert though, got the bars a couple years ago and when I was looking for a short stem the Spank one happened to be the best combination of the above. Doesn’t really match though, bars are tatty and stem is sparkly!
Used to often match stems and seat posts. Have not really done this for any bike since I began fitting dropper posts. Currently running matching bars and stem on one bike though!
All Deda on my best road bike.
All PX on my gnarmac bike.
Unbranded post, Hope stem and Deda bars on road bike 2.
Thomson post and stem, Nuke Proof bars in MTB.
Used to have Thomson post and stem with either answer or Easton bars just because I thought it was all good kit.
Now it’s a haven stem with havoc bars and a dropper post (Thomson currently) again because I think it’s good kit, not through any desire to match anything to anything else.
haha, for the first time ever this week yes, on my new build matching carbon stuff.
Will get swapped as necessary if not strong enough/angles not quite right though, function over form always.
I have been through several marching sets of stuff OP. Control Tech, Titec, RaceFace, Thomson…
Historically, if they made stuff in the dimensions I wanted – I would definitely look for a brand where I could get a matching set up. Always thought it looked better.
I’m a bit funny about matching some things, but not that. Main bike has Funn stem, On One carbon bars and a Reverb. Hardtail has Ragley stem, RaceFace bars and a Reverb.
Nope. While the highly refined mile munching trail FS weapon is such a mismatch with the unskilled biffer that sits astride it, worrying about whether it’s OK to use a Spesh saddle on another brand of bike is futile.
What, you take off a perfectly serviceable part and replace it!!??
Don’t you know how much energy to take to make aluminium? And the shipping from China, That’s another 2 tonnes of CO2 you’re generated.
😉
I’ve gone so far as to use 2 outer cable colours so they matched my bike.
Blue for where the frame was blue, and white for where it was white, which of course meant I had to have a cable joint, and considerable effort was made to get it to match the shade of the other bare metal of the stem/bars/seatpost.
And my cable ferrules match whatever anodised bits are on my bike. 🙂
My OCD says yes, cockpit is all Raceface ( Bars/stem/seatpost), even cranks. I use as much hope stuff as I can too (wherls/brakes/BB/Headset)
I am very sad. 😀
Match seat post and stem. I like Thomson and it looks good if they match with same finish and logo.
Bars are as logo free as possible and I wire wool the logos off where possible.