First Look: Industry Nine's A35 Stem
You've likely heard (and heard of) Industry Nine's flashy, loud, high-engagement wheelsets. Now the Asheville, North Carolina, based company is branching out from creating hubs, wheels, and other small bits such as their Matchstix thru-axle multi-tool, and adding stems to their repertoire.
I9's A35 stem is machined from aluminum billet and designed for, as the name so subtly hints, a 35mm diameter bar clamp. The stem is available in multiple lengths and like the brand's wheels, multiple anodized colors. It sells for $125 and for those who want a little extra customization, you can mix the stem and faceplate color combos for an extra $15.
I9's A35 stem is machined from aluminum billet and designed for, as the name so subtly hints, a 35mm diameter bar clamp. The stem is available in multiple lengths and like the brand's wheels, multiple anodized colors. It sells for $125 and for those who want a little extra customization, you can mix the stem and faceplate color combos for an extra $15.
A35 Stem Details
• CNC-machined aluminum
• Bar clamp: 35mm
• Lengths: 32mm, 40mm. 50mm, 60mm
• Weights: 128g, 135g, 150g, 165g (respectively)
• Rise: +/- 6-deg (32mm length: +/- 5-deg)
• Stack: 40mm; (32mm length: 42mm)
• Colors: 11 different options
• MSRP: $125 USD
• industrynine.com
• CNC-machined aluminum
• Bar clamp: 35mm
• Lengths: 32mm, 40mm. 50mm, 60mm
• Weights: 128g, 135g, 150g, 165g (respectively)
• Rise: +/- 6-deg (32mm length: +/- 5-deg)
• Stack: 40mm; (32mm length: 42mm)
• Colors: 11 different options
• MSRP: $125 USD
• industrynine.com
All the colors.
Background & Design
So, a stem from what's been known as a "wheel company" for over a decade is a bit of a leap, but it seems that the crew at I9 have put quite a bit of thought into it. I asked where the inspiration came from and, according to Vice President Jacob McGahey, it's a project they've been wanting to do for some time. He said, "We wanted to produce something that provided class-leading performance, but also visually distinguished itself from what is currently available. However, we didn't have the room take it on due to the combination of rapid growth and keeping up with all of the demands of the hub and wheel market. We recently added some additional engineering and operations resources that opened up the bandwidth needed to jump into some new projects."
A little history - Industry Nine have been selling their own wheels since 2005. While the stem is technically the first foray for I9 into anything unrelated to wheels and axles, the manufacturing side of I9, Turnamics, has been making bicycle parts outside of hubs and wheels for almost 30 years - including many of the parts for the original RockShox suspension forks. Turnamics still does manufacturing for several other bike industry brands, as well as contract manufacturing for other industries. All of this is under the same West Asheville roof as I9.
Laser etching and anodized colors make for a pretty sleek look.
As far as the design and construction of the stem goes, the same team that designs I9's hubs and wheelsets worked on the stem. According to McGahey, the biggest challenge with creating the stem was "making a structure that meets our form follow function ethos." In other words, I9 likes function and fashion to coincide.
The stem was made to be as stiff as possible, but still at what I9 considered to be a competitive weight, while upholding their standards. "Every curve and chamfer on the stem was designed to place material where it was needed for strength and appropriate wall thickness," according to I9.
To test the stem, I9 built an in-house stem and handlebar testing unit and utilized a test protocol that exceeds the ISO standard for stems. "We brought in competing products from most of the premier stem manufacturers to benchmark against as well," says McGahey. "All four lengths of our stems lasted over 50,000 cycles at progressively higher loads, while none of the other stems we tested made it over 30,000."
What's With the A35 Name & What about 31.8?
The A35 name comes from the A-axis in I9's five-axis CNC machining centers. 35? Well, that's the bar diameter the stem works with. Easy enough.
As far as a 35mm stem goes, I9 said that they wanted to go with it, "because it is steadily taking off as the industry standard for aggressive mountain biking and as bars continue to get wider, the 35mm clamp allows handlebars to be made lighter and stronger." I agree with that - there's no doubt that more and more bikes are coming with 35mm bars. They also said, "we want to make sure we can deliver the 35mm product to our dealers and customers before jumping into additional offerings." Respectably, McGahey says that they do recognize that the 31.8mm size has a place and they are certainly considering adding that diameter in the future.
Details are well thought out.
Performance
I've been using the A35 stem for several weeks now. It went on the bike easy as any stem should. I torqued it to spec and have been riding it without much thought since. I will say that it looks damn good on the front of my Yeti SB130 test bike and has garnered more comments than the bike in short order. I'm using the 40mm edition and it's nice to see a variety of lengths, including a short 32mm offered.
As far as any issues go, we're talking about a stem here so I'm really hoping to never have any or much more to report on that side of things.
Pinkbike's Take
 | There are a number of good stems available today and more and more companies are adopting 35mm as a standard. Industry Nine's A35 is one of the comparatively few options for what I would consider a "class leading" or "designer" 35mm stem at the current time. The quality of and craftsmanship in the design are very evident and it reflects the company's other high-end work. The ability to color coordinate with bikes, wheels, pedals, or other components is a bonus. |
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The bullshit is strong here.
Realistically, it may well be stronger than the competition, but that could just mean this is considerably overbuilt with competing products also being easily fit for purpose, they use 7075 for the whole stem for a start which is leagues ahead of the 6061 used in the majority of other stems.
bikerumor.com/2018/10/23/hands-on-industry-nine-a35-stem-turns-with-precision-from-cnc-machining
I assume so, but never had one.
If they do, then more likely to trust the product.
The marketing thing is quite a turn off, I would prefer they just said this stem has a great finish, it is built with very tight tolerance, it is strong and made in the usa (is it?).
An MTB really only needs a Send button
Even when I seem to put them in they usually just go back to a big block when I post.
Edit: Look at that it worked
A one machine / one man shop can be very competitive for runs of niche / small qty items and get a good/ fast ROI from a sensible investment - scaling a machine shop / manufacturing plant is extremely expensive though when you consider the relatively small sale quantities.
Nice work Industry nine, it warms my heart to see companies engineering optimized designs that are also beautiful and one-hundred percent made in the USA, don't let the haters get to you!
Is it a stem? yeah. does it accomplish the same thing as a $20 brand X stem? yeah. But, this thing is bad ass for hundreds of reasons. Some people can appreciate art, design, and craftsmanship and some can't.
Most of what he went on about in that rant are R&D costs. So, while the stem may truly be on the order of $20-$50 in parts and labor, the development is costly and needs to be recouped.
@krashDH85: Check out www.smithcreekmandolin.com/christopherbassguitar.html . I'm a luthier, those are basses I build and a large part of them is done on my very own CNC, with drawings I did in CAD on my very own computers. Not just the carved top and back, but the bridge, tailpiece and some of the metal parts. So yeah, I know a little about endmills and maybe not as clueless as you would like to think.
Roasted
As far as being roasted, nah. No one's feelings are hurt. @smithcreek looks to have a quality product and trade. But someone with manufacturing expertise and talent should understand all that goes into costs. Heck the 7075 material needed to make a stem costs about $25 give or take based on raw material weight, at current rates. I don't expect people that have never been in the design and manufacturing industry to understand. I put it out there, people can take it or leave it.
The bike industry is much faster paced as far as products changing (especially now a days) therefor the window to re-coup your investment and turn a profit on your product line is smaller (reads higher prices). You have to repeat all of your steps as soon as your product line changes. If you can swing it you mitigate it by finding ways to re-use tooling and still make product design changes, but that can be challenging and costly. If a company had 5 years to make money on a product you'd likely see prices drop, but that's just not the case in the bike world.
I don't think they come in brown.
Not that it is any skin off my back, I didn't get my feathers ruffled.
cheers
$125 MSRP means dealer buys for ~$75
$75 means distributor buys for ~$48
$48 means I9 must make for about ~$24
Any more than that and they might want to close shop.
But I agree, you can’t buy all the infrastructure required to CNC one stem for $20.
That first line is true. The 2nd and 3rd are debatable depending if you choose to go through a distributor. I've never worked in a machine shop where they have 100% markups on products each step of the way. That's why short runs are hardly profitable for a machine shop, it's the follow on or production runs that start to make them money.
I purchase material all the time. The raw material mills set the pricing so the machine shop's cost to produce starts there. Billet or forged 7075 is going to cost the machine shop $20+ to make a stem like that.
Only if you are interested in process I guess.
So, we have RF stem that will last till the end of our days, and we have A35 that will last the same. Design is subjective so ..
33$ vs 125$
Tough decision.
And about CNC - are machines used ONLY for making those particular stems? No. So, don't count them for 100% when speaking about manufacturing price of stems.
And even more funny - pass a stem for QC dept and testing dept. Department? Seriously? Like a crowd of specialy educated scientists?! ))))
Oh, marketing is such marketing..
Oh also it doesn't matter if the customer "cares" how it's manufactured or not.
These are businesses, not charities. All of these things have to be factored into pricepoint to be a successful business.
As far as CNC machine time, you most certainly count that in. You just have to factor in the amount of time it takes to make that particular part...not the entire CNC or other runs of parts it makes. Buying the CNC is a capital cost, which is why I left it out of my original post
But do you truly believe, all you are saying? You really think, that this is how a stem is designed and manufactured? You make producing a stem sound like a lot of rocket science is involved.
There isn´t! Period!
Believe me, or believe me not, you are being overly dramatic.
People are willing to pay this price for a nice piece of stem from I9. That´s why it costs the price it does.
And that is totally legit.
Not all of this is absolutely required to make a stem and a perfectly good stem can be made more simply and with less steps to the process but I can almost guarantee this will be pretty much how a company like Hope would also go about getting a stem to market and ensuring it is being made to the standards they require - Check out a video from hope, it will show pretty much all of the steps.
This is the reason precision manufacturing is an expensive game, the software is expensive, the machines expensive, the supporting articles (tooling, air, workholding, metrology etc) expensive and the people experienced and qualified enough to use them are also relatively expensive.
Do I think pricing the stem at $120 is too much? - It is a lot of money for what it is / what it does - Much of this will be because of the way the industry works (manufacturer, distributor, retailer all taking a cut) though and the realistically low sales numbers but Hope and Renthal do much better in terms of price and as we don't have a comparison between the function of them we cant say if one performs measurably better than the other either.
What I will maintain is that its just a choice, if you don't like it then shop elsewhere but I am sure the guys at I9 wont be buying a private jet from the stems sales, they aren't involved in a conspiracy to put the price of parts up in the industry and they do seem to have produced a well tested, quality product, at least it isn't an older crank-brothers style deal where you pay high prices but get junk, as you say its a nice thing and that's why people will pay for it.
However, if @krashDH85 believes, that designing a 150g 50mm stem requires a lot of ANSYS (FEM) work then he is wrong.
He is writing about months of ANSYS testing back and forth before even going for prototyping. Riiight.
If a stem was designed with FEM optimization in mind, it would not have sharp edges and radiuses. It would simply not look edgy. Period.
Messing up a 150g stem in terms of strength would be really really hard to do.
He just makes it sound as if there was a lot of crazy development involved at a stem like this.
Hope was never famous for being light, but for being reliable and well manufactured. Same goes for I9. Those guys make nice products with a great finish.
That does´t mean that it takes half a year to design a stem.
This stem ha its price tag for good reasons., but those reasons are not mainly to required design cost, development cost, testing cost, and especially not the dramatically explained QC cost.
Oh, and I like the stem!
I would like to thank you for taking the time to write this all out, because I am a weaker man than you, and do not have the patience to do so.
THAT component definitly worth its price!
2 bits of metal, 6 bolts, looks decent, comes in lots of colours, costs a fortune.
Review done.
Highlight sentences of value and repeat above...?
Just tossing an option for avail tool with which you can pull this off.
What's a difference between 35mm stem from I9 and from Truvativ or RF or any other?
They all sit strong on fork steerer tube and keep strong handlebar!..
$33.99
What is different from $125 I9 A35 ???
7075 v 6061/6082.
I hope you are just kidding and (in a topic about just STEM) you are not serious, especialy about value of being made in America.
Looks - it's very subjective so it CAN NOT has such influence on REAL PRICE (3 times difference!!!).
Weight - ok, this one I agree, it's some reason (not for me but I agree).
Again, we are talking about STEM (not cranksets, not frame, not .........)!!
So, does it matter for STEM if it's 7075 or 6061/6082? I mean when we speak about 33$ and 120$.
Two more things we're not number one at.
What does appear to the be the case though is that this material and design has allowed for a very strong product which failed after its competitors (we dont know what those are, I will admit, but whats the point in testing your product against somethign you know is junk?)
I9 are offering you the option you the option to purchase their product, if you dont feel its worth it then go and buy something else.
Don't judge if you haven't tried it. Any rebuttal rant will be disregarded until you have evidence you bought "shit" from AliExpress and put it through the rigors of riding.
@justanotherusername - no idea how it is manufactured and designed, really? huh... tell me when you get your contract with NASA. Let's just respect each other. I never said it is stupid to make or buy a stem like this I9. I have no idea what your problem is.
How can you tell if someone is an engineer?
Your own words being you have 'no bloody clue about CNC and work with buildings'.
Your comment about anyone who makes parts for the bike industry's only achievement is their survival itself is quite telling, but I'm sure you know better and could teach hope, chris king, MRP, I9 and a whole host of others a thing or two about where they are going wrong.
This is somewhat true statement. Tight tolerances are not always necessary. The RIGHT tolerances are necessary. This is what keeps production costs down. If you over-tolerance everything, the machining becomes complicated and drives your prices up. I would actually argue that the clamp to stem body interface doesn't have to be tightly toleranced (I guess depending on what one considers tight tolerances...ie building a house vs a press fit bushing tolerance). Most stems with a 2-piece (face-plate) are designed to have no gap up top when tightened, and a gap on the lower interface. This gap tolerance could vary significantly as long as the material wall thickness of the plate stayed within it's margin and you maintained a nominal tight tolerance of the 35mm diameter. All of this is going to be based of designing the correct datum structure from the very beginning, and identifying the key features of the part
Because they’ll continually create arguments that lead to engineering and upon arrival at the top of engineering towers promptly piss their engineering knowledge over all the those who ‘have know idea about how this kind of part is designed and manufactured’
I.e don’t worry, they’ll tell you.
You won’t get any kind of meaningful debate from the guy, he’s too concerned with propping up his own ego to see what the debate is actually about.
What have you added to the 'debate' anyway, oh enlightened one?
It is stupid, making it is stupid and buying it is even more stupider. Let’s have a real article about this product that is clearly a joke and do it properly. By laughing our asses off at it.
You are blindly criticising a company, whole industry and its customers because you personally don't see (or can't seem to understand) value in a product - people are allowed to choose what they purchase, a company what it produces and where value lies.
I9 isn't employing some kind of hard hitting marketing campaign to attempt to persuade you the stem is a 'must have'.
I am quite sure you will own things I consider 'stupid' and that I own things you consider 'stupid', but it's called choice, we are allowed to have one - almost every luxury item is ridiculous but we all keep buying them.
The same basic processes are in place for designing and manufacturing this stem as well as a return manifold on say, a rocket engine.
There's a reason that you haven't lost all your teeth from a stem that failed on your bike leaving you with your handlebars in your hand not attached to your bike. And it's not because someone said, "eh, that looks good enough to work"
I completely disagree that there is any value in this product whatsoever other than mild humour. But I am not trying to convince anyone who believes otherwise - I’m just telling you what I think. At least that’s all I’m doing this time
@krashDH85 sorry dude I’m not sure what you mean.
Somebody could have spent 15 years designing and honing a process to manufacture a dinner plate but if it comes to market and it’s still just a plate (albeit with some fancy glaze) and a price point that’s 5x that of the plate I’m already using I’m not gonna buy it, I would also question why anyone would buy it. If somebody takes the time to explain to me why it’s come to market at such a high price point id say “okay, I totally get that. It doesn’t not make sense and thanks for the explaination mister”, but I’m not gonna buy it because of a sob story that they’re expensive to make, just like I won’t pay crazy prices to ‘support my local bike shop’. No, I’ll keep buying these other plates that I know’re solid, won’t break my back when I load the washer, look cool in my kitchen and I can buy a whole set for the cost of the one.
If some other guy really wants these plates then that’s cool, I’m not going out of my way to try and get them taken off the market but I would think it’s odd and I’d suggest to him there are other options that I think make a lot more sense. But when I see he has a £45 Porsche baseball cap to go with his 2005 Cayenne I shut up and go home.
I am not a consumer, I’m a mountain biker. If you’ve ever noticed any of my other comments you may have gathered I have no love for high prices, whether or not the price is ‘justified’. This is just me pushing back at a situation I see getting worse. People are riding shocks that cost more than my bike. Then they spend that again having the thing ‘tuned’ for their loop over Ladybower. Meanwhile Sam Hill wins everything on a Monarch with a M/L tune off the shelf (probably). I don’t want mountain biking to become a consumer sport like Skiing that’s all. And I want it to remain accessible to both young talent and those less well off.
Nobody is asking you to buy the stem, nobody is attempting to 'drive' the sport of MTB to becoming a 'consumer sport' and if they were, it certainly wouldn't be a business like I9 who are absolutely tiny in the scheme of things - MTB is already a commercial sport - we have £10k bikes readily available for god sake and we are constantly buying new products that will improve our experience on the bike, its non-stop - Its more commercial than most sports if you ask me in terms of required expenditure.
Are all of the items in your pictures yours (or were yours?) - if so you definitely seem to be a 'consumer', you ride a luxury performance bike, have pictures of an expensive Commencal, Absolute Black ring, Fox rear shock etc - then you say people are riding shocks that cost more than your bike (assuming its yours again)
Your final point of bikes being accessible to young riders is probably the worst, I9 making a stem wont make the sport less affordable to young riders and there has never ever been such a choice of bike available and the lower price point bikes have never been so good, stuff from YT etc is literally phenomenal for the price point as tech has trickled down.
The point you are making here is all in your own head, its imagined, a small machine-shop / bike part business isn't trying to compromise your ability to ride push bikes!
One side of the "cap" was cracked all the way through and the other side the crack had migrated about halfway through the material. It looked to be a cyclical loading failure right along a sharp edge (think stress riser). I was very fortunate that both sides didn't fail completely at once.
This stem comes out (doesn’t matter who makes it, big, small, etc) then the next guy comes along and there’s now a new reference to pricing. Their new stem is now priced 7.5% up on what they might have considered previously. It’s been proven that people will pay and they’re confident they’ll sell the quantity they need at that higher point. They may or may not account for it in the production process. Either way the rider pays more next time he want a stem.
People keep saying that entry level bikes are now better than ever and to me that shows exactly how bad things are! They’re good because what you’re looking at as affordable is in fact 2 thousand quid. My bike at 15 cost me about £200 not £2k. I had a nice hardtail with decent suspension and parts to rip. I am also on a low income and can not afford what is considered a ‘lower price point bike’. They’re not as expensive as the top end but they are not cheap by any stretch.
I don’t suggest that there’s any conspiracy here other than to make money. We live in a capitalist society, I accept it but I don’t have to like it.
Ahhahaahhahha, dance puppets daaance! I am the stygian charnel-fire of Cosmic Blasphemy!!!
A well designed forged stem is lighter, stronger and cheaper. Pick 3.
A well designed CNC stem looks nice and makes you feel good.
It's a STEM!
You know how you can look at something, hold it in your hand and know you've got something solid and superbly crafted? Just from the look, feel and finish know it's quality? Yeah, those are I9 wheels. If the stem is anything like that, you can decide if the value is worth it for you, but the finished product is probably worth the money.
Marketing bullshit flood is steadily drawing us all. It's just another f*cking non sense.
If the Renthals don't work for you guys, check out the Nukeproof Horizon, the Straitline Pinch, Easton Havoc and I'm sure there are a few more out there.
Funny, I’ve heard that people have had that experience, and I’ve heard that people have had squeaking from the Renthal face plates. Been running mine for more than a year and have only tweaked the bars twice (both in pretty big offs where I would have expected bar movement)
bikerumor.com/2018/10/23/hands-on-industry-nine-a35-stem-turns-with-precision-from-cnc-machining
But....if you want to bling out your bike, the range of colors (and mix/match option) is awesome. If you're gonna spend this much on a stem, might as well floss out your ride with some sweet anodized colors (90's style 3d violet would be my preference).
So.....not a product for everyone, but this will tie a flashy build together better than Lebowski's rug tied his living room together.
A few final notes on cost; small batch anodizing parts is pretty costly. Between U.S. manufacturing, custom hardware (bolts) and the range of available colors (and the mix/match option) these aren't cheap to make. So.....while those features don't make a stronger or better performing stem, they do make for a more expensive one.
However i9 is ' nice piece': of alu that can personalize your build, does it looks good - not to my taste, does the price fair - yess, similar to competitors
For 30€ I got Syncros XL1.5 stem that's only 135gr in size 50mm, comes with Torx bolts but it doesn't come in rainbow colors.
Who runs this stuff?
Some flex in the bars is a good thing.
Sorry I didn't read all the marketing BS I just like the pictures.
Numers looks on par w/ Hope's 35mm AM stem, and i KNOW those things are burly...and I can get those from the UK for a pretty good deal. $125 for this seems...a bit over the top!
Bloody daft. It’s a stem.
I’m not sure what’s I dislike the most, the companies that sell this crap or the fact there is actually a market for it.
There are plenty of $30 x that function better than $130 x
Oh and all the metrosexual wimps that say 35mm bars are too stiff, well maybe your a pussy. Who the hell came up with 31.8 standard anyway? Why not 31.6, or 32.4.
Lastly $125 too expensive for you? Tough buy a cheaper stem, quality cost $$$$.
clandestine.cc/stems