In the past I’ve always been a fan of a traditional style stem. They haven’t let me down up to this point, so why bother changing stems? Well, I had the opportunity to check out the Twenty6 F1 integrated stem on my downhill bike, and to be quite honest, I’m very impressed so far. Read on to learn more about my initial impressions of the Twenty6 F1 stem.

For starters, I’m sure you’d love to know some of the stem’s specs to determine if you want to read any further? Assuming this is the case, the F1 stem is machined from 6061 T6 billet aluminum, a very stiff yet light material that offers a fantastic strength to weight ratio. In face, our stem including all hardware came in at a feathery 126 grams! To give you an idea of how heavy that is, chop 50 grams off of your Thomson 50mm Elite stem, and there’s a Twenty6 F1 integrated!

The 3 piece design offers zero degree rise which is expected from any gravity specific integrated stem, so Twenty6 meets the standard there. Where they differentiate themselves is by offering the same stem with the option of running 45mm, 50mm, and 55mm reach simply by moving the stem forward or backward. The recessed bolt holes prevent any unwanted movement, all the while keeping things simple, and a pleasure to look at.

The F1 stem is built to match up with Rock Shox Boxxer and Fox 40 top crowns, and fits 31.8mm bars quite nicely. At this point, it is available in 11 different colors (Glacier White, Urban Camo, Wood Grain, Dirt, Mellow Yellow, Pink, Jet Black, Royal Blue, Vibe Red, Grass, and Burnt Orange). Basically if you want a super fly stem to match your race bike, Twenty6 has just about every color covered!

The first thing that you notice when you compare this stem with some of its competitor’s integrated designs, is that it has a narrower clamping zone. At first I thought it would feel flexy on the trails as I hammered the bars side-to-side, but after several long days of vertical, this is not the case. It’s as torsionally stiff as any precision quality stem that I’ve ridden. The 4mm clamp bolts do an excellent job of securing your bars in the position that you want with no compromise in clamping force.

If you’re a competitive DH racer, chances are that you like to sprint your bike; or even if you’re a weekend warrior, you have to pedal your bike at some point. I found that running this stem at 45mm creates a small overlap in front of your top crown. Now this may pose a problem to some, but if you’re hitting your knees on your stem, chances are your frame is too small. This problem is remedied by the nice rounded design of the stem. You won’t be catching your shorts or cutting your knees on this baby!

Since the 5mm bolts that screw into the top crown offer the rider adjustable reach, the entire column of adjustment range has been machined out, saving weight over designs that drill out individual holes for each reach position. In order to properly adjust reach, all you need to do is loosen the bolts off, pull all four out, slide the stem into the position you desire, and then tighten them back down—quick and easy. I really like the option of being able to fine tune the reach of my stem for various DH tracks; this is definitely where the industry is going.

I really like that fact that I don’t need to centre my handlebars over the front wheel anymore, now my bars are guaranteed to be straight all the time—another advantage to any integrated stem design. The only disadvantage that I can think of to running an integrated stem would have to be cutting down your fork’s steer tube, granted you don’t actually have to do it, but it is nice to keep things clean.

I’ll keep all of you updated with a season end article on how everything worked out through the season with the Twenty6 F1. From my experience so far on this product, I’m very happy with it and can’t wait to spend time on it this summer! Stay tuned for more…

Thanks for reading

mitch@painincorporated.com