And check it out.
We have moved our bars up quite a bit, but more importantly, I've added suspension right
here.
I honestly don't know how this is going to feel.
If your ebike does not feel comfortable, your handlebars either feel too low, too close,
too far away, too high, then you probably need to change out your stem.
The first thing you need to know is that stems come in a variety of lengths.
The one on the Warthog is about this long.
You can get ones that are longer, say 110 or 120 millimeters in overall length.
And you can also get stems that are much shorter.
Like this one.
Now this is for a custom project that I'm building.
And if all goes well, you'll see it on next week's video.
So make sure to hit subscribe if you haven't already.
And by changing the length of the stem.
You're effectively changing the reach from the saddle to the handlebars.
So the first thing I think you should decide if your bars aren't quite comfortable is which
direction do they need to go?
Do they need to come closer to you or do they need to move further away?
For the custom bike I'm working on, that's going to use this stem.
I wanted the bars to be nice and close.
So the bike was fairly comfortable and maneuverable by bringing the bars in, but I didn't want
them to be terribly high.
Hi, because that might affect the aesthetics of the look that I'm going for.
So this seemed like a perfect fit.
And this also leads me to the number two thing you should know.
Which is that stems have different angles.
This stem is what you would call zero degrees because there is no rise whatsoever from where
the stem mounts onto your fork.
Over to the hole where the handlebars go.
It doesn't go up or down.
And if you look closely at something like what comes on the Warthog , or other bikes,
there might be a very small rise.
So you can see that there's just a little slope , maybe about six degrees or so.
It's kind of a common number.
I don't know exactly what this one is because it doesn't say it.
I have to go measure it.
Now, one thing you may notice is that there is a logo on the side here that can be read
in this direction.
Or if you flip it upside down and that's because most stems can also be used in either direction.
You can actually have it drop putting the bar lower.
And if you want to bring the bars up, even higher, this stem, for example, has a 30 degree
rise.
Now these come in different lengths as well.
So there's basically an unlimited combination of not only length forward.
But also the angles up and down that you can find.
Now, one of the things you could do is go to a bike shop and have them fit a few different
stems and try and do it that way.
But what if you're not sure exactly what you need, but you know, you want it maybe a little
taller, but you're not exactly sure of the angle.
What do you do then?
Cause you really don't want to buy 20 different stems to figure out which one has the best
fit.
And that leads us to number three adjustable stems.
So this has an angle, which right now is set a little bit higher than the Redshift stem.
I just showed you, which was at 30 degrees.
So this one's maybe 45 degrees where it's sitting right now.
Uh, some of these will actually have a little angle indicator on the side, so you know exactly
where they're set.
Uh, but when I say adjustable, there's just a single bolt on the side here.
And when you loosen that, then you can tilt the stem.
Upwards or down, and that's about the maximum amount you're going to get right there.
It won't quite go up to 90 degrees.
There are other adjustable stems on the market that can go even further.
Uh, but this way you can have the bars out straight.
Or you can start bringing them back and closer to you as an example for the work hog bike.
If I was to put in the adjustable stem, instead of the one that's on here, my bars could go
from this position all the way up to about this position.
Number four is that some stems actually have.
Suspension.
No, I'm not kidding.
This stem has suspension inside that flexes.
So if you've got a road bike or something, that's really rigid with no suspension at
all, you can put this on your bike to soak up some of the bumps and vibrations that are
coming through the handlebars without putting on a suspension fork.
Not only does it have suspension, but it is adjustable.
So I'm going to pull out these four screws and show you what's inside.
You can see a rubber thing that squished inside there.
This stem comes with a total of five different elastomers and these all have a different
hardness.
So if you want the stem to be really soft and supple, or if you are a lighter writer,
you're not going to put as much pressure on it.
You could put in something like this, which I can actually squish, probably can't see
it too much on camera.
I can actually squish this one with my fingers a little bit.
Whereas if I go to one of the harder ones than I can't move it at all, this feels pretty
solid, but this actually has some flex to it.
They have a chart in the instructions for the stem that shows you for what rider weights
or what type of handlebars you're using.
What they recommend, and you can use either one or two of these to get a really wide combination
of comfort levels.
I've gone with just the single number, 70 elastomer, which is what they recommend.
If you're using straight bars and around my weight.
And number five, how do you swap one of these out or install one?
Because I actually want to put the RedShift . Suspension stem on the WartHog bike here
and try it out.
That might seem like a bit of overkill on a bike that has not only fat tires, but a
front suspension fork.
But if you're looking for maximum comfort, why not?
The first thing I'm going to do is loosen and completely remove these four bolts.
Now I can remove this face plate and now the handlebars are going to come completely off
and just give this a couple of turns.
That should be enough.
A couple of turns on this side.
Once these are loose, we need to completely remove the top bolt.
Now, when you're putting your new stem on pay attention to how thick it is compared
to the old one.
In this case, you can see that the red shift is a little bit taller than the stem that
we pulled off.
So we might have to remove one of our spacers.
You also might have to add one.
If your stem got smaller in this case, I think it's just tall enough that I can remove one
of these spacers.
Now here's something I see done wrong on occasion.
So make sure to pay attention.
Make sure you don't do this.
What happens if I remove a second spacer and I put the handlebars on like that?
And then I go to put my cap on and I tighten this down.
This is bad.
Don't ever have any of that tube exposed from the fork that top bolt kind of sandwiches
everything together when you tighten everything down.
And if you have any sort of gap right at the top there, then potentially your fork could
come loose or move up and down.
It's going to wobble, could ruin the bearings and the headset.
It's not good.
So this scenario where the top of the fork tube is sitting just a little bit below the
stem is what we want.
Now you can tighten the top cap all the way down.
But do not over tighten it, just get it nice.
And firm, don't worry about this.
Not being lined up straight with your front tire.
We can fix that in a moment.
If you keep tightening this as hard as you can, you can actually pull that star nut up
out of the fork tube.
And then you're going to have to probably get a new star nut pound, a new one in that
requires tools or a bike shop.
Make sure to use the new face plate that came with whatever stem you're putting on these
four bolts can be a little bit tricky.
Because you don't want to tighten one and then another, and then another, otherwise
it'll be all wonky and off center.
You want to make sure to try and tighten them all evenly.
And there is going to be a gap underneath the warthog is a little bit different because
these two bolts are longer and they double as a spot for the headlight to Mount.
Now that the handlebars are on what I think is easiest to do is if you stand at the front
of the bike, kind of hold the.
Front wheel straight, get those handlebars straight.
You can also do this from the opposite side.
And once everything looks good.
Then you tighten down those two pinch bolts on the side and check it out.
We have moved our bars up quite a bit, but more importantly, I've added suspension right
here.
I honestly don't know how this is going to feel.
I've got all sorts of interesting gear that I use for recording.
If you guys ever want to see a video.
On what equipment I use to record my e-bike rides.
Uh, leave me a comment.
So law, I want to see if I can detect any movement in the stem here and yeah, it, can
you feel a little flex under heartbreaking because you're putting, so that was downhill.
Come up to a stop sign, hit the brakes, hard, hit some potholes here.
And as I put more pressure on the bars, I feel the.
The handlebars move forward a little bit.
I could see that might take a little getting used to because normally the bars don't move.
They're just, they are where they are.
Uh, the other thing is I have the suspension seat post on Chrome Redshift on this bike
as well.
So I didn't even have to get out of the saddle going through all these potholes right here.
Wow.
This is weird.
Okay.
Fork is still locked running through a really rough gravel section right here with lots
of ruts and bumps.
There's another curb over here.
I'm just going to, I think we got enough clearance to run over that.
Okay.
So there's the curve I've been hitting.
It's going to hit it straight on.
I'm going to get over the front of the wheel a little bit.
Put more pressure on my wrists.
It's like nothing.
That's that's pretty awesome.
Suspension locked again.
so don't get me wrong.
When I go over the bumps with the suspension lock, I feel that curb, but I feel like what
you would normally have is on your wrist, especially on something like that.
If you're not using your elbows and everything to absorb the impact.
Uh, you just, you kind of feel it just shock through your arms, uh, and you don't get that
anymore.
It takes that edge off.
If you will.
Once I unlocked the suspension, it's like, I can barely even feel that bump.
I know it's there.
Um, but this is pretty awesome.
If you set up a bike like this with front suspension, shock absorbing stem suspension,
seat posts, you could ride all day long.
And the vibrations that normally might wear you down.
Are not going to have any effect on you.
If there's one downside to this stem, I would have to say if the price, they are a little
bit spendy, but absolute comfort is what you're after.
Then I'd say it's worth it.
I, I want to stand up off the saddle and like prepare myself for all these bumps, but I
don't really have to, uh, that's pretty cool.
All right.
Full throttle.
It's a pothole not standing up.
It's okay.
It looks scary, but it's not pothole.
It's like, I want to hit them now just for the fun of it.
Don't forget.
I am putting this stem on a custom build that if all goes well, will come out.
I think video next week.
So hit that subscribe button.
I've also already reached out to RedShift about trying to get some of their suspension
seat posts and their suspension stem in stock.
If you want to know more about the suspension seat posts, then definitely go check out this
video right over here.