-
Ti stems are stupid, they always look clunky
It's probably about time somebody one-ups the Grammo with something in 3D-printed Ti, innit.
Considering that if you make a stem in carbon, it's just what they call black aluminium - because it has to be strong in every direction, the strength to weight is hardly better than forged ally...
Kimmo-
The Grammo seemed to offer a miraculous combination of high performance and light weight when introduced because it was hollow, and competing against solid stems. With metal stems, you tend to run out of stiffness before you run out of strength. Since torsional stiffness in the extension is where your trouble is, it's hard to do better than a round tube. Outside of weight-weenie contests, there's little to be gained by making a stem more expensive than a net-shape forged 7000-series aluminium alloy job, because those can already be done stiff and strong enough at just over 100g for a 100mm stem. Using either exotic alloys or additive manufacturing isn't going to get you 30g off that. The 3D printed stems currently available (Mythos, Nex-Gen, Bastion) show no benefit over much cheaper forged aluminium alloy models. At the high end, everything is heading in the direction of integrated bar-stem construction for the aeros.
gbj_tester
It’s hard to improve on bare ti.
Paint tends to come off ti in my experience. So it always ends up looking lousy.
Ti stems are stupid, they always look clunky. Even Moots puts Enve on their bikes.