Softride Suspension Stem....

[SFP]

Yeah Yeah Yeah, I know....

But IMHO it is way better than the Gavin Flexstem.

I am finding these 55 year old wrists and hands (each wrist broken twice, each finger at last twice, most three times) are taking a beating with a rigid fork on my Ritchey.

Pavement and hardpack groomed trails are no issues and as it is my city/commuter bike I freely admit I may be just being a whiny old guy eh.

But.. I have access to a few Softride stems for cheap (like $40 CDN or less cheap), and I am thinking of trying one out.

I know the steel is heavier but also less flex and less issues.

Are there rebuild kits out there? Anyone done a tear down and rebuild? I do have access to a few machine shops so am not afraid to crank out a new part or two if need be.

But I have only ever just test ridden them.

Any fellow over 50 yo's folks have feed back? Waste of time? Made a difference?

Thanks in advance folks.

Pics for example.

 

[fennec]

Ooh, theres a garys projects video on these i highly recommend that shows his whole process cleaning one up

Its 16 minutes of taking one apart and putting it back together

 

[Iwasgoodonce]

I have something similar if not the same. It certainly is a parallelogram design. It is fitted to my do most things bike. It has been toured, used to get the shopping and even used as a mountain bike!
I have always liked it. The steering geometry stays the same with the levers always where they should be.
The only downer is that with all those pivots, mine has developed some slop.

Certainly worth a try although I cannot compare it to any modern suspension.

 

[bulgie]

I've had a few of them, OK two that made it on a bike I rode. One of them I raced on in XC, and while it didn't give all the advantages of a sus fork, it didn't bring a lot of the disadvantages of a sus fork either. BTW I think at least 3 XC pro world championships were won using them, so back then people on Softride stems were beating people with sus forks. (Forks have gotten better since then of course.)

Practically zero stiction, so it floats for even small-amplitude vibrations. No damping, unless you got one of their add-on "outrigger" shock absorbers, which I've never tried. But I actually didn't mind the lack of damping, because you can damp the movement of a stem as much as you want, unlike with a fork (or a rear sus) where undamped feels terrible at speed, unsafe even. I don't think about it while I'm doing it but I guess I must be using my arm and core muscles to damp the unwanted movement. You will too, takes like one short ride to get the feel of it.

My main complaint is the wear in the pivot bushings, causing a fair amount of slop by the time I took it off. I rebuilt it once with new bushings while Allsop was still stocking them, then the replacements wore, so the stem lives in a junk box now.

I might rebuild it with bronze bushings, maybe even oilite (sintered bronze with oil in the interstices) if I can get it in the right sizes. But I have a lathe and a nice chunk of bearing bronze, if I have to make my own. I think bronze bushings could make it durable enough to last the rest of my life, since I'm old and don't shred or air anymore. But I'm lazy and that's way down the list of "someday" projects.

Note, if you just want to take a little of the sting out of the handlebars, you might like a Redshift stem. Much simpler, no parallelogram, much less travel. Haven't tried one but I hear nothing but good things. They're popular with long-distance roadies like rando-nerds, and of course for garvel. They're a currently-made product with parts available, like elastomers in various hardnesses to match your weight and riding style. But they've been around long enough that if they were wearing out, we'd have heard about it. Anyone here with Redshift stem experience want to chime in?

 

[trailwright]

Yeah Yeah Yeah, I know....

But IMHO it is way better than the Gavin Flexstem.

I am finding these 55 year old wrists and hands (each wrist broken twice, each finger at last twice, most three times) are taking a beating with a rigid fork on my Ritchey.

Pavement and hardpack groomed trails are no issues and as it is my city/commuter bike I freely admit I may be just being a whiny old guy eh.

But.. I have access to a few Softride stems for cheap (like $40 CDN or less cheap), and I am thinking of trying one out.

I know the steel is heavier but also less flex and less issues.

Are there rebuild kits out there? Anyone done a tear down and rebuild? I do have access to a few machine shops so am not afraid to crank out a new part or two if need be.

But I have only ever just test ridden them.

Any fellow over 50 yo's folks have feed back? Waste of time? Made a difference?

Thanks in advance folks.

Pics for example.

I bought one for $20 from the US and the postage to the UK was about the same. I'm going to be using it on my next build for a bit of fun.

 

[raidan73]

@al loves a Softride

 

[al]

@al loves a Softride

I do.

I've used several Allsop stems on different bikes.
I got on well with them, as I was always a smooth rider that liked trails suited to such suspension.
If I was going to ride more technical stuff, I would ride a bike with a suspension fork.

The only issue I ever found was that the rebound not being damped could be harsh and that annoying top out clunk grated on me!
An after market external damper would have solved the issue, although I never found one.

al.

 

[raidan73]

I do.

I've used several Allsop stems on different bikes.
I got on well with them, as I was always a smooth rider that liked trails suited to such suspension.
If I was going to ride more technical stuff, I would ride a bike with a suspension fork.

The only issue I ever found was that the rebound not being damped could be harsh and that annoying top out clunk grated on me!
An after market external damper would have solved the issue, although I never found one.

al.

 

[al]

View attachment 982102

Incase I forgot what one looked like?

al.

 

[al]

Incase I forgot what one looked like?

al.

I had one with a damper, but I let it go to a brother.

al.