I’ve been looking at various stem/bar combos and keep seeing the haven name cropping up as being decent kit but they are described as AM. What is AM and is it suitable for Single speed XC hammering?

No, god will begin killing kittens as soon as you start riding them.

thisisnotaspoon – Member

No, god will begin killing kittens as soon as you start riding them.

Eh?

Not sure if this is a wind up. AM is All Mountain, specifically bikes with 140 to 160 front or rear suss, the bars are wider 700 at least. If you’re more XC focused then wide AM bars might be too wide for narrow forest st, but saying that I’ve got easton haven bar and stem combo and an am bike and I ride xc most of the time, I’ve had a few clipping incidents though.

I’d be more concerned about the exploding wheels.

I have the Easton Haven bars and stem combo on my XC hardtail (26″) which I use for commuting and XC and find them ideal.
I went for the shiny option rather than carbon though, they look much better IMO.

I’ve currently got EA50 bars and a Race Face deus stem… both are old and scuffed. Was Either thinking replacing like for like or spending a bit extra on something better?

Yeah why not??

If you have them or want them then use them, no one appart from rewski will care that they have ‘AM’ in the marketing 😛

I’ve got a thompson stem and Easton EA70 flat bars on mine which suit it nicely IMO.

I did the same move. Loved my EA whatevers at 675mm wide. The Haven’s (711mm) have the same cosy Easton shape, they felt wide for about 10 minutes then ideal.
I have the Havocs (750mm) on my full sus to keep that cosy Easton wiggle, now the Havens actually feel a bit narrow.

I like AM because it’s my initials 😉

thompson stem

I bet you’ve got a thompson seatpost too.

I bet you’ve got a thompson seatpost too.

It was in the rules 🙁

I see. Thanks for the All Mountain explanation. I quite like the idea of wider bars but was unsure that Eastons Haven stuff would be overkill or not appropriate for XC riding on me Swift… A bit like having a down hill full susser and then just using it for towpaths etc.

If you want wide bars on your XC bike then go for it.

I’m running carbon havocs on my bike and love the width. The Haven and Havoc carbons are a good way to get the width without a much extra weight if it bothers you. Strength and vibration damping where more important to me.

It is annoying me though that I now have a Thomson seat post with a Haven stem and Havoc bars. Did have a 70mm Thomson stem but wanted to shorten it to 55mm – made the bike so responsive but I need to work on my weight distribution on rocky down hill bits now.

No, god will begin killing kittens as soon as you start riding them.

I thought if you put AM parts on an XC bike, a crow scratched a baby’s face and a fairy drowned in its tears?

And if you put an Easton bar in a Thomson stem a hole is torn in the fabric of space (so you need to buy a matching stem, like I did, for the sake of the children).

My xc full suss has so called AM bars, stem and cranks on it and is all the better for it.

For clarity, fitting AM parts to an XC bike will actually cause Sting to release another lute record, this time with Nick Knowles off DIY SOS on backing vocals.

Please don’t.