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Negative Riser Bars, Dropped Stem from Syntace, Plus X12 Quick Tool Axle Release

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Syntace has added a few components aimed at 29er riders looking to get their position on the bike as low as possible.

The FlatForce stem has a 12mm drop in handlebar center compared to a standard stem and is angled to sit close to parallel (will depend on your head angle). Lengths run from 44mm up to 111mm in 11mm increments (jumps from 99 to 111, though).

It uses a 200° clamp opening, similar to Ritchey’s C260 stems, and has Syntace’s wide rectangular shaped stem that puts the clamps wide on the handlebars for better torsional stiffness.

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The Low 5 / Low 10 “riser” bars have a 5mm or 10mm negative rise. Like the stem, they’re designed to put the rider lower. The Low 10 above has a and comes in 740mm (180) and 780mm (208) widths. Weights are 188g and 208g The low Five is 740 mm but can be cut down to 700mm. Weight is 205g.

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Their handlebars get a new naming scheme with the rise and sweep listed on the bar and as part of the model name. Two versions of a negative rise handlebar are offered, a Low 5 and Low 10.

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The revised Screw-On Moto Grips get a new pattern and are offered it both 30 and 33mm diameters to fit smaller and bigger hands. They felt pretty good.

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One of the rider complaints about the Syntace X-12 rear axle is that there’s no quick release. It’s not a flip lever, but they do offer a new hex tool and end cap that clips onto the axle. The kit comes with a replacement end piece that extends a bit and the tool snaps into it with the long end sitting inside the axle. The short end is sized to unscrew the axle. The long end can be had with a few different sizes to work with common Shimano or SRAM drivetrain parts.

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MissedThePoint
MissedThePoint
11 years ago

That stem and bar would’ve opened up more options for me when I went looking for a new 5″+ 29er FS bike. One of the bigger reasons I chose the bike I did in the end was because it had a 3.7″ head tube w/ZS headset, which helped make the front end feel dialed, along with the nice 68.5d HA and 51mm offset fork.

Epci29r
Epci29r
11 years ago

What’s the neg.degree of the stem? Parallel sounds like -17 or so using SBC’s CLP Multi stem.

plebs
plebs
11 years ago

How did they manage to engineer a stem with the writing the other way round?

DontGetIt
DontGetIt
11 years ago

Likewise, I don’t really understand, what advantage, if any do these bars/stems offer over taking existing items, turning them upside down, and putting them back on the bike?

Andy
Andy
11 years ago

I read that as FistForce on my iPhone screen….

Carytown Bicycle Co.
11 years ago

It appears to be taking a -17 degree stem and ADDING even more drop with the offset. As for the bars I guess it depends on if there is any upsweep.

The Niner carbon bar is reversible because it’s an offset flat bar with no up or downsweep. Simply flipping most riserbars will drop the grip but also reverse the angle of the upsweep and change the wrist angle substantially.

The Syntace bar appears to be taking what Niner did to the next level. Pretty smart I think.

Lee
Lee
11 years ago

Niner bars and stems are made by Syntace, correct?

Luke
Luke
11 years ago

Perhaps 29er riders could get their front ends lower by taking 3″ off the wheel diameter? Surely that is the obvious solution?

Carytown Bicycle Co.
11 years ago

Haha so true… I got tired of a high front and went down to 650b. Best of both worlds for me.

Fred Natick
Fred Natick
11 years ago

If some random early 29er rider in 2004 hadn’t said his “hands were too high” (while forgetting his hips & saddle also were higher) there wouldn’t be this hand position paranoia. Talk about a theme that rose out of nowhere and gathered its own momentum!

I tend to panic about where my wheel axles are, relative to 26″ wheels! It’s terrifying! Can’t we come up with a way to lower them?

MulletRacer
MulletRacer
11 years ago

Dear Fred,
Thats not a valid point. BBs are similar height in relation to the ground regardless of how big the wheels are. Therefore, your saddle should generally be at similar height. (depending on a few factors)

29ers arent just 26ers with big wheels crammed in

And who need bike fit anyway! Right Fred?

Bill C
Bill C
11 years ago

@fred
Most 29ers have BBs on the low end of the spectrum- which will result in low saddle height (relative to the ground).

@carrytown
The distinction between upsweep and backsweep is just a construct: it doesn’t exist. There is only the angle of the bar’s grip segments relative to one another combined with the location of the vertex relative to the clamp axis. We really need a better way to specify bar sweep.

greg
greg
11 years ago

@bill c
i know what you mean about up/backsweep. the only thing ive seen that could determine the neutral position from which the upsweep/backsweep were measured is– the direction of the rise. it seems most bar manufacturers make the rise happen perfectly vertically.
in the end, though, youre right in that it doesnt matter bc you can rotate the thing to your liking, so the direction of the rise makes almost no diffrerence.

Aaron
Aaron
11 years ago

I like that stem. I may get one to replace the somewhat heavy Specialized stem with angled shim that I’ve been using.

Mindless
Mindless
11 years ago

Just move onto 650b. It is big enough.

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