XC Gear was founded in 2015 by dirt bike enthusiast and inventor Lance Smith who was fed up with vibration-induced injuries to his hands and wrists while riding motocross. He set about trying to find a solution and the result was the Mako 360, a bar mount that uses 'engineered polymers' to remove the metal-to-metal contact of a traditional system and reduce vibrations in all directions. The brand is now branching out into mountain bikes and has brought the same technology to a stem with the Hammerhead 360.
But just how important is vibration damping? Well, studies suggest it could actually make a serious difference to performance.
We've previously spoken to Lewis Kirkwood, a Norco Factory Team mechanic and Ph.D student at Edinburgh Napier University,
who published a study that showed the vibrations experienced by mountain bikers regularly exceed safe levels set by ISO standards.
Lewis is quick to point out that this doesn't necessarily mean it's inherently dangerous to be exposed to this level of vibration for short periods of time while mountain biking, but it almost certainly has an impact on performance. He says, "The more vibration you expose yourself to, eventually it's going to limit your grip strength. Vibration stimulates muscle and it makes the muscle tense, which is why you get arm pump because your muscle doesn't relax and it cuts off the blood flow. My director of studies, Professor Geraint Florida-James, did a study at Fort William and you can lose around about 30% grip strength in one run top to bottom." And it's these same vibrations that the Hammerhead 360 is trying to limit.
The stem is slightly different from the often tried (and more often mocked) suspension stem as it doesn't add any travel to the front of your bike but instead uses polymers to absorb the vibrations that come from riding in a similar fashion to
Revolution grips or
Spank's Vibrocore products. XC Gear claims from
its own in-house testing that its products can reduce vibrations from an idling engine by 18% and vibrations from bumps by 38%.
This data is based on a motocross bike and the brand hasn't released any data about mountain biking but it's probably safe to say that the stem will reduce vibrations to some degree. XC Gear says, "With the Hammerhead 360 engineered polymers absorbing the vibration, riders will have substantially less grip issues, arm pump issues and overall fatigue. The result is higher energy levels on all rides, whether they are long or short. The added comfort will allow you to hit obstacles harder and faster, which means you can adjust your suspension more aggressively to get more out of your bike and yourself."
The stem itself is made in the USA from 6061 T6 aluminum and can be fitted with two different polymers for different levels of damping. Trail riders are advised to use a red polymer and more aggressive riders a green polymer. The stem is 45mm in length and fits 31.8mm diameter bars.
The stem is available now for $399.99, which probably makes it one of the most expensive MTB stems money can buy, but if arm pump regularly ruins your rides it could be a solution worth shelling out for if it works as claimed. More info,
here.
Flexible handlebar for only $325.
flex stem + flex bar + flex grips = $800 & you're still slow
imgur.com/gallery/EeOPBUl
A wheel/tire being round means that it accelerates up and over an obststscle. This means that the LSC is engaged before the HSC. And the lsc is often the culprit for harshness.
I need this to happen.
yep, but not $650,.. it's only €129 and been available since last year. Bike Yoke Sagma.
www.bikeyoke.de/en/sagma.html
- Fasst Flexx bars (aluminum), softest elastomers
- REV Grips w/ the softer elastomers
- 7/8" closed cell foam backer rod filling the inside of the bars
Could tell a noticeable difference in the really small vibrations riding on pavement after adding the backer rod, so I'm sure there's probably more improvement to be had.
Would be curious about adding one of these into the mix, but the price is pretty high and I'm not sure that the width will work -- the wider Fasst bars only have a 70mm wide clamping area and I've been unable to get details on the exact width for these.
Step 2: Produce extremely expensive plastic parts to get it less stiff.
Why not using a normal alu bar like syntace. Costs way less, weighs less, not to stiff, no problems at all.
- You got cancer Mr. White. We'll start the treatment next week.
-THE END.
April 1st is still far away.
My personal take:
Beefed up parts for ebikes are being sold as stiffness upgrades to regular bikes as trickle down supply chain
The stiffness is now so harsh that we're adding even more weight to dampen the vibrations they transmit
My next bike will have 31.8 bars and boost hubs and superboost/35mm can stay on motorized rigs
Just my 2c, maybe someone is sending it hard enough for these things to matter but it's not me.
Carbon bars reduce vibration from single hits, since their natural frequency is way higher than metal due to higher Elastic modulus (ratio of deformation for a given stress load). The raw force still gets transmitted to your hands, but just once instead of the residual vibrations that are present in metal bars.
The softer elastomers in this stem reduce the overall amplitude of the vibration since the bar can move about some within the stem. This yields an overall softer ride. Same concept as the ShockStop Suspension stem for road/gravel bikes, which works very well.
In the case of this stem, the main type of movement it permits is a "see-saw" motion of the bar. Unfortunately, this is the worst kind of flex. It does more to disconnect the control inputs of your hands from the orientation of the bike on the pitch and yaw axes than it does to allow movement in the plane of the bike, especially if both hands experience the same force. There is probably in the range of a millimeter of movement available in-plane, yet many millimeters of see-saw movement. As I said, this is a terrible ratio of control-reducing movement to comfort-increasing movement.
At least the ShockStop stem and the Trans-X AntiShock stem maximize in-plane movement and minimize roll and yaw axes, although the do create movement on the pitch axis. Still, it's the lesser of two evils.
A better solution is to just use larger tires. The vibrations are cut off at the source (the ground) before they can disturb the chassis, the ratio of good movement to bad movement is better, and it's $400 cheaper - likely lighter, too - to add a couple millimeters of size to a tire than to add a big, squishy stem.
Also, I'm not necessarily talking about jumping all the way to 2.8". The point is that this particular stem is not the most effective way to add comfort. At least the Fasst Flexx bar, for example, can accommodate in-plane movement. If we use tires as one - among many - examples of an alternate solution, if a rider is currently on 2.4" tires, stepping up to 2.5" would be an improvement on the scale of a slightly flexible stem with less downside.
you sure your oneup bars aren't rotated 90 degrees the wrong way?
Push on grips...
Silicone ones like ESI in particular. They cost f*ck all and have all but eradicated arm pump for me. I'll happily do 2 weeks of daily lift assisted big mountain DH with barely more than a twinge.
*edit* I should add that I run coil suspension front and rear. but honestly, just a £10 set of silicone grips made an immediate and noticable difference. No see-sawing handle bars. No overcomplicated lock-ons with built in suspension. Just 2 bits of plain silicone rubber. Try it.
My experience has been that thick rubber grips have worked better than silicone foam. The latter is softer in the radial direction, but the former allows more shear deformation, which I find more valuable. In any case, soft grips are definitely one of the good places to add compliance - cheap, too!
For MTB think of the difference even just tyre pressure makes; just a few psi takes us from tyres rolling off rims and sketchy to perfect then onto too hard and bouncing off of things.
For example, if a frame company wants to increase the travel of a model, they don't bolt a Shockster onto an existing frame, they design a frame with more travel because the result will work better.
Similarly, the stem is not the best place to add compliance, and definitely not via a system that produces more roll axis rotation than in-plane translation.
@DHhack
I hear you. Yeah the OneUp bar didn’t change my life. Compared to my old 35mm Atlas alu bar they’re noticeably better as is the Chromag BZA carbon on my last bike but that’s expected as that bar is stiffAF. I can feel a lot of flex in the Ibis 31.8 carbon bar too fwiw.
I don’t know why 35mm happened.
I am curious about the fasst flex bar but not quite ready to try it yet.
m.pinkbike.com/news/fasst-company-announces-flexx-handlebar.html
Jokes aside, the reason main components are getting stiffer is to avoid uncontrolled rebound effects associated with flexing metal. If you have a perfectly rigid metallic component (bars) you can control more vibration while damping the effects on your body. Not that I consider any of this when buying components. Chromag = Pretty = Buy
Yeah, good luck with that sale, I'd sooner buy one of those fancy flex bars before I'd shell for a $400 stem.
Honestly, as much as I appreciate the work that some folks put into designing a product, there is just no way in hell that it costs that much to design and produce that stem.
Nope, no way.
>buy any 35mm wide stem and any 31.8 bars
>order custom plastic sleeve for 10 bucks
>vibration damping setup ready
That is literally my real life experience f*cked from a long life of BMX
Although I can see this going down well in the more serious long distance gravel community
Compliance is best handled by suspension and tires. Too much flex can cause all kinds of unwanted things going on. Nothing is going to be perfectly stiff, but I want my fork legs as still as possibly, fore to aft especially, so it works without binding and does feel like the bike is bending backward when I hit a big compression, which I find unsettling especially at speed. For wheels, I want lateral stiffness, or I'm liking to get frame rub and it transfers power better. Vertical compliance again, I'm not that concerned about if I set my tire pressure and suspension correctly. If you can build a little in without sacrificing lateral stiffness then fine, but floppy feeling wheels are the worst especially when your on the heavier range for a mountain bike rider.
1. Buy a new 35mm standard stem
2. Cut butter into thin 1.5mm strip
3. wrap around my current31.8 bars
4. install bar in new 35mm stem
Result:
Buttery smooth....not for use in hot climates....
Anyways, I'm actually curious to see where the ideal place to actually damp vibration and absorb shock really is. If I had to bet my money on it, I'd go with proper tire pressure, proper fork/shock pressure, and MAYBE some Spank Vibrocore bars ???? Everything else is pretty damn overkill I think...
Can’t un-see the price tag for a stem... a bloody s t e m. -palm to face-
#Biketight
Step 2:
Step 3: Profit (for the companies)
0
Ahhh the good old days.
Cheers!
I am waiting for a revival of disk-wheels.
@tioga it may be the right time....