USE Vybe suspension stem evaluate

I’ve to confess, I’m an enormous fan of USE – I’ve used their lights for years and I just like the construct high quality and (not often wanted) aftersales assist. I’m additionally an enormous fan of suspension stems on gravel bikes – I feel they supply simply the correct quantity of safety with out including an excessive amount of weight or complication. So the Vybe suspension stem from USE needs to be proper up my gravelly alley.

I’m a long-time person of the Redshift ShockStop suspension stem on my Cannondale Topstone Carbon 3; I feel a suspension stem works properly with the Kingpin rear compliance and offers a really balanced experience. Its muting impact on path chatter is a kind of issues that you just don’t discover till you experience a motorbike with out it after which the additional jarring is straight away obvious.

Building

Just like the Redshift, USE’s Vybe makes use of easy, interchangeable elastomers within the aluminium stem physique to offer the boing however provides primary rebound and compression management, through 3mm Allen bolts high and backside. These push plates onto the elastomers to squish them down and supply preload to tune the stem’s motion. They will also be used to change the angle of the stem somewhat by loading one and releasing the opposite. That is essential as a result of at the moment, the Vybe stem is barely accessible in two lengths (70mm and 90mm) and a optimistic rise possibility, so the elastomers are the one technique to alter the stem angle. USE says that it shouldn’t be used the wrong way up.

The rebound and compression adjustment is what units the Vybe aside from its opponents, permitting a lot larger fine-tuning of the stem’s efficiency and larger rider customisation than is feasible simply by swapping elastomers. Probably that is one thing that may very well be accomplished on a ride-by-ride foundation in addition to per rider. It may very well be stiffened up for tough terrain and slackened off for simpler rides with only a few twists on an Allen key in order that the good thing about the stem was nonetheless accessible.

Aesthetically, the Vybe is fairly neat, much less industrial-looking than the Redshift (and far much less steam-punk than the eeSilk suspension stem) – should you squint a bit it may cross as an ordinary stem, aside from the silver pivot bolt. As such, I feel I’d have most popular a black bolt to additional disguise its abilities. Weight is excellent contemplating the development; the 90mm stem got here in at 206g in comparison with my 100mm Redshift at 280g and the SRP additionally undercuts the Redshift product by £10 and it’s lighter and cheaper than the eeSilk too.

The Journey

The field contains the stem, a selection of 4 elastomers and somewhat pot of acceptable grease to make sure it operates easily. The preliminary setup was easy sufficient – I adopted the suggestion for the proper elastomer for my weight and the directions for preload on the excellent instruction sheet. Nonetheless, my very unscientific workshop bounce assessments appeared to trigger the stem to backside out (when the suspension abruptly reaches the restrict of its journey), so I wound on some extra preload to stiffen issues up and headed out the door for the closest little bit of gravel.

Two issues grew to become shortly obvious. Firstly, it was far more energetic and compliant than my Redshift, and secondly, I used to be nonetheless capable of backside it out often when bunnyhopping a puddle or clumsily hitting a rock. The softer spring charge was very welcome although, permitting the stem to react extra simply to smaller irregularities making for clean progress over rougher trails, however nonetheless with out ever feeling like I used to be being tipped ahead over the bars. This was my (and is most individuals’s) important concern when suspension stem curious; wouldn’t it really feel just like the entrance finish was continuously collapsing or that I used to be going to slide forwards off the hoods? In fact, even when descending steep floor, I’ve by no means skilled that feeling. I feel the angle change is simply too small to detect amongst all the things else that is occurring when driving off-road.

It’s value additionally saying that there isn’t any impression on lateral stiffness, with no detectable motion from the left or proper sides when heaving on the bars uphill or honking out of the saddle. If blindfolded driving was potential, I feel you would be hard-pressed to inform that you just had a suspension stem on in that respect.

Subsequent experience, I switched to the more durable, purple elastomer with some preload, which was a simple 5 minute job, and this solved the bottoming-out situation for me when experiencing larger hits while on the hoods. Though it stiffened the stem up somewhat, there was nonetheless loads of compliance accessible to clean out smaller bumps. Nonetheless, at 73kg I’m not notably heavy, but ended up with the stiffest elastomer fitted so larger riders would possibly wrestle a bit.

It’s value discussing right here an inevitable situation which impacts all suspension or flex stems on drop bar bikes, which is that the leverage modifications considerably relying available place. Clearly, an extended stem has larger leverage so would require much less weight to maneuver it, however when you think about the very variable distance to the hoods, drops or handlebar tops from the pivot level close to the steerer, it’s simple to see a possible drawback; driving on the hoods exerts about twice as a lot leverage as when on the tops, so the proper elastomer or spring charge for one hand place can’t even be appropriate for an additional. As I experience primarily on the hoods when off-road I attempted to set the stem up for that, however should you mainly experience on the tops or the drops then your set-up might be completely different and would require the softer elastomers. When on the tops, there was little or no motion from the stem for me.

Worth and conclusion