Redshift suspension review: Are gravel bikes better with some suspension?

hello and welcome to just ride bikes i'm david and today's video is all around a topic of weather suspension on a gravel bike is a step too far or the next evolutionary step for this exciting new breed of bikes to find out i've been testing for the last couple of months the redshift stem and suspension seat post to see whether a bit of suspension is a good thing or not now the topic of suspension on a gravel bike is a very relevant one right now hot off the news of sram and rockshox last week launching their first suspension fork but not the first in the market we've already got a candle suspension fork and fox and mrp will sell you one as well and that's even the niner four suspension drop bar gravel bike and then darling back a few steps we have bikes like the specialized diverge with the future shock up front and then the bmc unrestricted with the elastomer soft tail and also the track checkpoint and quite a few other bikes that try and offer some suspension while not being a true suspension bike now all those require you buy an expensive new fork or a complete new frame the beauty of the redshift system with a stem and a seat post is that you retrofit it to any frame you currently have so much cheaper much more accessible way to add suspension to your current gravel bike but what are they like to live with do they work what are downsides well let's dive in and take a closer look and it's based on several months of riding my local trail is here and some bike packing adventures as well so let's dive in [Music] let's start up front with the redshift suspension stem which has been around for a few years now and quite a few people have already invested in the stem and you might have one already let me know down below if you do now suspension stems aren't a new idea and i'm sure some of you are rushing down to the comment section right now to remind me of the girvin flex stems from the 90s now the idea the concept of a suspension stem isn't inherently a bad one it's just back in the 90s it wasn't the right fit for the way mountain biking was evolving suspension forks were much better fit for the riding these bikes were being designed for and catered for and also held back by technology and manufacturing materials at the time but fast forward 20 plus years and with the latest manufacturing and materials understanding the concept has been brought right up to date and works pretty well it has to be said now using this over the last few months as i have i've been really impressed with how it delivers a smoother ride over rough gravel tree roots and down rocky descent i was initially worried that it might feel vague and flimsy but that hasn't been the issue at all i've been barreling down on some quite rough tracks twatting into roots and rocks and doesn't feel flimsy or flexy at all when you're sprinting out the saddle there's no side to side flex that i can detect nothing to really take away from the sheer comfort the stem offers so it's a very rudimentary design aluminium stem and two small elastomers inside which you can change based on your rider weight you can tune whether it's softer or firmer and offers up to 20 millimeters of up and down movement you can't turn it on and off like you can with a suspension fork or the specialized diverge future shock system with a dial on the top it's always on and always active any concerns around it bobbing on a smoother fire road or road or climbing out of saddle or sprinting proved unfounded in my testing now i do have the firm elasmus fitted to try and dial out the movement so it only really works on bigger impacts so it's not bobbing around excessively and it feels fairly normal and having it active all the time is a good thing because even on the road here in the cotswolds they're pretty rough strewn with gravel and potholes when you get off-road onto your favorite gravel tracks and roots and rocks and other impacts or corrugated grass or whatever it is the movement it offers is just supreme it offers so much more comfort and smoothness than a fixed rigid stem what that does is reduce fatigue on longer rise my upper body feels less beaten up when i'm doing a long ride especially apparent on a bike packing adventure when you're riding day in day out and the fatigue can really build up in your upper body especially with extra weight on a bike as well so it helps to reduce the the soreness the tiredness you get when you're riding off-road and while not suspension as such it does give me a bit more control because it calms the front of the bike down and that's especially apparent on high speed rough sections where normally the front of the blackbeard bounce around blocking around on every small impact the stem just smooths it out just calms it down and just makes it all a little bit less hairy and sketchy and makes it a calmer nicer experience so that's all the good stuff then what about the bad stuff well the most obvious points that come to mind are the price it's not cheap but it's cheaper than buying a new bike or that new rockshox suspension fork then as it looks not the prettiest looking stem although this new version does look much better than the original it's a bit chunkier than normal stem but for me i don't mind the looks because the functionality the performance it offers counteracts the way it looks and then of course there's the extra weight over a normal stem yes it's heavier but again the performance it offers counteracts the extra weight compared to a normal stem so for me the looks and the weight are an issue because the performance it offers is just simply fantastic the stem comes in a wide range of lengths 80 up to 120 millimeters this is 100 and you can change it from minus six to plus six which requires removing the elastomers uh doing a bit filling aside but it's a really easy five minute job and now you can get a one and a quarter inch version for your giant overdrive two or your canyon gristles so that's a good thing as well one hour thing that's worth bearing in mind and worth pointing out is that compared to a telescopic suspension fork or the specialized fuse shock where the handlebars go up and down in the same range of movement this tilts the handlebar so the handlebars rotate forward when they go down and i had to slightly rotate the handlebars back just bring the hoods back up so a small adjustment required to get around that slight quirk of the way the stem rotates around the steering tube the other small thing worth bearing in mind is when you go bike packing and fit a bar bag to the handlebar is that you allow enough room between the top of the tire and the bottom of the bag so when you hit a bump and the handlebar fully compresses the tire doesn't contact the bag but apart from those small details no major downsides at all i know that many people have bought the redshift stem and the stem alone but i've been fortunate to test the shock stop suspension seat post as well and in my mind it makes a perfect combination and i wouldn't choose one or the other i'd have both i know it's a more expensive uh proposition but both work together extremely well now light suspension stems suspension seat posts are nothing new and we had them back in the 90s with early mounted bikes as well and to be honest with you i'm surprised there aren't more on modern gravel bikes we have flexible carbon seat posts like a canyon vc ls split seat post and a few have designs but suspension seat posts make a lot of sense there's a minimal weight penalty small cost increase but it's cheaper than buying a whole new bike like a full suspension bike keeps the bike simple doesn't add too much complexity but offers a lot more seated comfort and that's great when you're riding off-road or going bike packing riding a long way with all your luggage on the bike so it's a very simple design aluminium construction 27.2 millimeter diameter and a very simple parallelogram design offering up to 35 millimeters of suspension got a small removable cover to protect the internals there and inside is a simple spring and a pre-load collar and you add an optional spring inside the mainspring to tune it for your body weight so i have a small bit of sag when i sit in the bike it compresses just a little bit but i've tuned it so it only works on a bigger impact and a really corrugated washboard gravel or big roots and rocks and that suits my preference so i'm getting suspension but i'll get it when i really need it it usually increases comfort where you're riding for an hour or six hours with luggage when you're riding over rough gravel and roots and rocks and brighter ways and everything else you might encounter on a british gravel ride it offers so much more comfort just removes all that feedback that comes through the back of the frame straight into your lower back just reduces the fatigue you get on a long ride it also enables you on very rough sections where you might normally have to stand up to use your legs as suspension to isolate you from all the bumps that the bike going over to keep in the saddle to keep pedaling keep the power on keep the speed up and pedals very rough sections where normally you might have to stand up to too bumpy the range of suspension movement is really really smooth and lighter stem you don't really notice it working at first you do notice it because it's very different to a normal fixed seat post but after one ride you get used to it straight away in my opinion it offers more comfort than other systems on the market like a canyon grizzle with a vc ls split seat post the track checkpoint with the isp decoupler and also the bmc unrestricted with the soft tail elastomer setup now downsize r that is much much heavier than normal seatpost but again lighter stem was also heavier than a normal stem the performance the comfort it offers offsets the weight penalty quite a bit as you're on comfort you're not going to worry about weight so the weight isn't a factor for me it might be for you but if it is then you'll be right with a normal seat post and just deal with the harshness the rough impacts that come through a fixed seat post you can use it for bike packing as i did for three days doing the king average way the only tip i would offer you is to wrap some tape around the post because as you can see my bag has worn away the black anodizing on the post so wrap it with tape and you'll be just fine so let me wrap up my thoughts on the suspension stem and seat post from redshift and my thoughts on suspension on gravel bikes more generally and i think we all know it'd be a hot topic for debate over the next few years with everybody having their opinion the pros and cons and ultimately whether the future of gravel bikes is suspension forks and ava products it's down to you guys whether you embrace it while you go out there and buy it with your hard earned cash but for a lot of people it will be a step too far adding suspension to a gravel bike gets away from their simplicity and the purity that they offer i'm not really being the best bike on a road or off-road but being the best compromise everywhere and letting you do everything with one bike but on the other hand i know there'll be many people who love the idea of suspension on gravel bikes for the extra speed it offers and the extra comfort it offers which i found to be a really appealing aspect of this combo here for me personally i don't think i'm sold on the idea of a full suspension grabber bike like the niner i think you're better off with an actual mountain bike and suspension forks i'm not yet decided i need to try a few more before i make up my mind on those but i do like the idea of a bit of suspension like the future shock from specialized and a soft tail from bmc or the redshift stem and seatpost combo i'll be using here because of comfort it offers it's just fantastic it is amazing how smooth this bike is compared to a normal stem and seat post it's so good in fact i'm not in any rush to take them off and put them in the box send them back and put normal stuff back on and when i ride i have a gravel bikes when i test out the ground bikes i'm relieved and happy to get back on this bike because the comfort they offer it's just fantastic without going all the way to suspension complexity just a bit of smoothness but not making it too smooth and not really taking away the fun of riding a bike like this off-road in the woods and the open gravel roads like we have here yes the weight penalty is a factor and a cost you can't ignore but cheaper than buying a new bike that's for sure so for me i'm absolutely sold on the redshift suspension stem and seatpost and if you ask me which i would chew between the stem and seat post i would say get both they both work really well if i could only have one i'd probably go through the seat post over the stem but i think you need both to get the most benefit out of this setup anyway those are my thoughts on the redshift suspension stem and seatpost and my thoughts on suspension on gravel bikes and i'm sure there'll be some more videos coming very soon as that rockshox suspension fork arrives for testing very soon so make sure you stay tuned to the channel for more on this exciting topic and do let me know what you think down below by leaving a comment are you for suspension on ground bikes or against suspension on gravel bikes i'd love to hear your thoughts as always but that's all for now thank you so much for watching i see you all again very soon

Channel: David Arthur - Just Ride Bikes

Views: 90,660

Keywords: cycling, bikes, road bikes, gravel bikes, mountain bikes, tech, reviews, bike reviews, cycling reviews, bicycles, cycles, redshift, suspension

Id: k9fmEfw7j64

Length: 13min 38sec (818 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 18 2021