Best stem for comfort
- Thread starter Huggis
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Smokin Joe
Legendary Member
- Location
- Bare headed cyclist, Smoker
A stem is a stem, it has no suspension or damping properties, unless you buy one with such a system built in. If you need a softer ride experiment with tyres and their pressures, don't fall for the crap journalists in the magazines spout about this frame or these handlebars being more comfortable than those over there.
BTW, I've been cycling for over half a century and none of the countless bikes I've owned have ever buzzed. Maybe I've just been lucky?
D
Deleted member 1258
Guest
You're not alone, over forty years of cycling and I've never come across road buzz either.
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e-rider
crappy member
- Location
- South West
you might find someone who claims carbon fiber will reduce road buzz but I'd say that's BS outside of any high tech lab experiment
focus your efforts on gettin gthe correct length and rise as too long too low too high and too short will all be uncomfortable
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
I do know what road buzz is and it isn't nice! It's the vibration that comes through the bike from riding over roads covered in that rough chip-and-seal surface dressing. The vibrations made my fillings hurt and my hands and feet go numb, as well as making my bike sound like it was shaking itself to pieces.
The solution wasn't a new stem though, it was as @Smokin Joe suggested - looking at tyres and pressures. Changing from 23C tyres at 100+ psi to 25C tyres at 80-90 psi made all the difference. And that is on a very stiff oversized alumininium frame with a very stiff stem and stiff oversized bars. Oh, and as @vickster suggested, thicker, more-cushioned bar tape helps too.
The solution wasn't a new stem though, it was as @Smokin Joe suggested - looking at tyres and pressures. Changing from 23C tyres at 100+ psi to 25C tyres at 80-90 psi made all the difference. And that is on a very stiff oversized alumininium frame with a very stiff stem and stiff oversized bars. Oh, and as @vickster suggested, thicker, more-cushioned bar tape helps too.
dim
Guest
- Location
- Cambridge UK
road buzz does exist
ride a road bike with aluminium forks on a bumpy road and you will soon find out when your fillings fall out ... carbon does dampen out a lot of the 'buzz' .... I used to own a cheap aluminium Carrera road bike with aluminium forks
My specialized has carbon handlebars, carbon handlebar stem and a carbon seat post and I would say that it has less vibrations/buzz than my Surly LHT steel bike that has wider tyres
ride a road bike with aluminium forks on a bumpy road and you will soon find out when your fillings fall out ... carbon does dampen out a lot of the 'buzz' .... I used to own a cheap aluminium Carrera road bike with aluminium forks
My specialized has carbon handlebars, carbon handlebar stem and a carbon seat post and I would say that it has less vibrations/buzz than my Surly LHT steel bike that has wider tyres
Moodyman
Legendary Member
Smokin Joe
Legendary Member
- Location
- Bare headed cyclist, Smoker
Drago
Legendary Member
- Location
- Suburban Poshshire
It's a fairly recent phenomenon originating in roadie magazines to give them something to get moist over with carbon frames. This is despite carbon supposedly being stiffer and lighter, which actually makes it less efficient as a damping medium than a more forgiving, heavier/denser material.
Its fairy dust.
In answer to the OPs question, there is no such thing. In terms of damping properties a stem is a stem, and you want a stem as stiff as possible for safety and efficiency reasons, and such stiffness is at odds with any damping requirement. Joe is wise when he says other shizzle like tyres will make the biggest difference to such characteristics.
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D
Deleted member 1258
Guest
I wondered why people have only been talking about road buzz in the last couple of years and only on forums, we weren't talking about it twenty thirty years ago and its not been a subject of conversation on the cafe stops
Thanks all..as noted it's the buzz which comes from the chip seal roads found all around where I live in Scotland. It's again unusual that there is much confirmation of the damping effects of carbon whether used in frames, bars or seatpost (yes some are better than others) yet the poor stem seems to get no such attention.
Drago
Legendary Member
- Location
- Suburban Poshshire
I've asked on many forums and even a letter to a roadie magazine, and no one has yet explained how a lighter, stiffer material had better damping properties. To be so would be against some of the most fundamental physical laws.
S-Express
Guest
Just let 5psi out of your tyres, that should do the trick. In terms of stems, one lump of welded aluminium tube is pretty much like another. None of them will 'soak up road buzz', because as pointed out, it is physically impossible.
The 'damping effects of carbon' is one of the great myths perpetrated by reviewers in cycling mags.
