Podcast: British Cycling WTF? Flex Stem Returns And Trashmob Academy

Join Mark, Amanda, Chipps and Sanny as they talk about the issues of the week. What does Mark think about the British Cycling/Shell sponsorship bombsh …

By mark

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Vecnum do a better suspension stem option for gravel bikes as it uses a parallelogram to ensure the bar and hoods move vertically rather than through an arc.

The range of motion on the Redshift stem isn’t enough to care what path it’s taking – it just absorbs the initial jolt of the bump, then hits the end stop. You don’t really notice it moving, but you do notice that rough terrain isn’t anywhere near as tiring on the arms. Very impressive piece of kit.

RE British Cycling & Shell – given this is the same organisation that told people to not ride their bikes during the queen’s funeral, and that got in a mess recently around trans athletes, I don’t think they can “read the room” very well

@sillyoldman

To be honest, with 20mm of travel, I can’t say that I have noticed any bar rotation. The darn thing just works really well and as @footFlaps says, on rough terrain it makes a real difference to comfort levels. Even on the road, it takes the sting out of the undulations and imperfections. I’ve already done a side by side test on the same bits of trail on 2 pretty much identical bikes, one with and one without the stem and you really notice the positive benefits from riding with it. Colour me impressed.

Cheers

Sanny

I should add that it would be great to try the Vecnum stem and the Cane Creek model to see how they compare. I am definitely sold on the concept which is not what I was expecting.

Very impressive piece of kit.

Agreed.

The redshift stem has been around a few years now iirc and been reviewed to death already but I guess that doesn’t matter ! Despite the obvious comfort benefits I sold mine almost immediately (a couple of years back ) due to the fact that if you like to stand up when climbing very steep inclines , tugging hard on the bar translated into a horrible “seesawing” motion of the bars ,up and down repeatedly . Even the stiffest elastomers were no answer . Many seem to like it though ..perhaps they are seated twiddlers or they like that experience …not me though . I am a moaning grumpy old cynical git though who being short of cash tends to be easily dissatisfied . Glad however the tester ( Sanny?) is enjoying it …I may have liked it more if my pockets were deeper or it was given as a gift but that oscillating …needs dampening and/or a lockout in future imho.

Have to say that the arc being unnoticeable is a surprise. I was conscious of my bars rotating on my early 90s Spesh with a Girvin Flexstem – I’d have thought that the hand position and longer effective stem length on drop bars would exacerbate the feeling?
Sanny – give the guys at Projekt Ride in Edinburgh a shout – they import the Vecnum stem. They showed me last time I was in. Looks nice.

After listening to the discussion on Shell and BC I feel I need to point out Shell are rebranding themselves (and have been for a while) as an energy company and have been pushing themselves as such for a while. I was surprised none of you picked up on that.

And while I’m here it’s six degrees of separation/Bacon not 7. I know the podcast is relaxed and chatty but you are also journalists and both of these things can be checked with a quick Google.

Edit: that reads snarkier than it was meant to sorry, I do enjoy the podcast.

It can try and rebrand all it likes (that greenwashing attempt is what this is all about, after all) but Shell is ultimately still an oil company.

What kelvin said.
Shell = Oil

During the Shell ep I was served an ad from Saudi Aramco. Yes, *that* Saudi Aramco. I’m sure STW have no control over who pays for ads on the platform you use, but it was a bit rich, that you too are profiting directly (however minuscule-ly) from Big Oil 😎.

…can I ask if subscribers can get our own feed with no ads? They are loud, intrusive and really ruin the vibe. I stab the +30sec button the moment they appear. Please folks, find a better way.