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I haven’t been able to ride a bike for longer than about an hour for several years because of arthritic thumb joints. I’ve had operations on both hands (trapeziumectomy) which has improved things, but I’m still struggling and need all the help I can get, including large volume tyres, Ergon grips or cushioned bar tape, and decent hydraulic brakes so I can operate them well even with my feeble grip. Swept back bars make a difference, both in taking weight off my wrists and providing a more comfortable hand position.
I’ve been very impressed with the Shockstop suspension stem on my Camino, and would like something similar on my hybrid/tourer which currently has an On-One Geoff bar on it. However, the stem doesn’t seem to do anything when used with this bar, or others with a back-sweep I’ve tried such as an On-One Mike.
Redshift have a page about using their stem with a Jones bar, in which they say “Because it is a pivot, only loads that are in front of the pivot point will actually cause the stem to flex (a "moment" is required to make it move). In the DH / Upright position you will not be applying a "moment" to the ShockStop, because all the weight on the handlebar is at a point that is likely behind the ShockStop's main pivot. With hands in this position the stem will just feel like a normal rigid stem.”
I’m probably just being dim, but this doesn’t make sense to me. Given that a Shockstop stem can be used either way up, surely if one’s hands are as far behind the pivot as they would be in front with, for example, drop bars, the moment will be roughly the same, just in the opposite direction. Is it just that one places less weight on bars that are closer to the body, so it would work with lower-rated elastomers?
I could get a longer Shockstop stem and use less swept-back bars which would then place my hands on front of the pivot, but this would lose the benefit of the more upright position from bars that go further back.
Do alternatives such as the Vecnum freeqence deal with this differently in ways that might work better for me? A Specialised Future Shock would be ideal, but I can’t retrofit that to my Roberts Roughstuff…
All suggestions gratefully received!
Suspension fork?
Listen to Redshift. I got one a few years back, for use with jones bars, and it's exactly as they describe. The weight behind the stem effectively pivots it up instead of pushing down, rendering it useless.
Get the bars as high as possible is my advice, but this is too late I suppose if you already have the bike.
https://giphy.com/gifs/UePZt6zg8sAThpuLow
If everything had movable pivots that kept your bars perfectly horizontal, then it would work. However, because the bars are rigidly attached to the stem, there is a rotation, which is fine when hands are in front of the pivot, but bad when they're not.
Thanks all. @bedmaker I’ve had the same experience, but I don’t understand why. The stem pivots up rather than down (and vice versa) when one’s hands are behind the pivot, but the stem can be used either way up so I can’t see why that’s a problem.
@thols2 I’d seriously struggle to find a suspension fork to fit a 25 year old Roberts Roughstuff, but even if I could it would be overkill - I just need to take out the road/pothole buzz.
The important thing is where your hands are relative to the pivot. Right in front/behind of the pivot there's maybe 1mm of really hard travel, 100mm in front there's loads of travel.
If your hand position is significantly behind the pivot, it'll work, but I suspect the steering geo will be unusual (self centering won't work).
Loads of old forks on eBay, eg this if you have a 1" steerer
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/266508647637?
Or loads more if you have a normal steerer, the rockshox paragon is a good match
https://www.vecnum.com/en/products/freeqence
I'm not sure if this design would improve things. They claim for drop bars it doesn't matter where your hands on in relation to the pivot. Got a good review in Cycling UK magazine recently.
it would be overkill
On the contrary, it would probably do exactly what you want - take the sting out.
@5lab I think you’re right, and it’s about the distance from the pivot. Perhaps a really swept back bar will work in combination with their shortest stem…
I agree that I *could* try a suspension fork, but I really don’t want to if I can find a reasonable solution without. The Shockstop stem on my Camino is great, so I’d like to see if it’s possible to repeat that success with a more upright position that gives me better brake leverage than I can get from the hoods.
@avdave2 it was that review of the Vecnum stem in the Cycling UK magazine that inspired this question. I’ve emailed Vecnum about it but no reply as yet.
(apologies for lichen, weeds etc)
Lovely bike.
But.
Is it still putting weight on your hands? It might be worth paying for a bike fitting - and considering another bike....
If you've already got a suspension stem, you've nothing to lose by trying it out. With those bar ends on you'd get a load of benefits on them for sure
If the bike doesn't work for you, n+1 has to be the answer.
The stem avdave2 linked to will work for any bar type, as it is a parallelogram not a pivot.
The load (you!) always acts on the front part of the stem as the handlebar no longer acts as a lever, just a vertical load.
I’m not explaining it very well, but it will work from a geometry perspective.
Thanks all!
@oldnick - that makes total sense, you explained it perfectly! It seems really obvious now you’ve said it. I’ll see what Vecnum say in response to my email, but it looks like I’ll be getting one of their stems. In the meantime I’ll follow your suggestion @5lab and try my existing Shockstop stem with some On One Mollymawk bars I’ve got lying around - I wouldn’t want them long term, but they should help answer the question.
@matt_outandabout Glad you like it! I’ve had it for more than 25 years so while n+1 is always appealing I’d like to keep this one going if I can 🙂
I just found this thread about Vecnum stems started by @kaiser earlier in the year. The video posted by @cookeaa answers my question clearly at 2m 15 - you were spot-on @oldnick!