Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Zipp SL145

Good things come in little packages. This was never an option but I got some credit from my last purchase at Team Cyclist ( in the US) as it was their policy to price match and beat. I found one on the internet and needless to say, they honoured their claim.I needed a shorter stem and got the 100mm. Picture after I brought the bike in to the shop to have the excess fork steerer cut.
Notice the massively oversized stem/clamp area. One thing that drew me to the stem was Zipps claim of extreme stiffness. It may not matter to most, but for a small rider like me who practically pulls on the handlebars on climbs and sprints to squeeze out that extra bit of wattage, it matters.
On the old aluminium Avanti Corsa, stem flex/vibration were part of the daily ride order of the day. But going from that to the Pinarello stock MOST carbon, its been a delight. That was until I put the Zipps on. I guess its slightly biased as the 1cm drop does make a huge difference as well; I am finding that I am getting to ride more and more in a compact position.
In terms of weight; Ritchey 4Axis 100mm (116g)
Stock 'MOST' 110mm stem; (151g )
Zipp sl 145 100mm stem; (147g)
While the Ritchey wins hands down on weight, it is something I will not trade over for the stiffness of the Zipp's SL145. The former also exhibit more signs of flex as compare to the 'MOST' stem.

5 comments:

Killjoy said...

U wan stiff..u should try Jo's Pro Stealth stem handlebar combi..

AJun said...

Still prefer stem/bar combo. Can adjust +- angle. And I like short reach/drop depth bars.
Again, its abit hard if I hard to pay 'indecent price' to find that I prefer 1cm shorter stem. Unless I tried hers and found it to be the right fit.

Shin Wei said...

i'll let you try!!!!

Killjoy said...

Know what u mean...i think set up using normal stem and handle bar...once u set sui sui... get a combi.

Go CRC...heaps cheaper.

Unknown said...

i think ah both u n mike should setup a forum la.. no need to leave so many msgs on each other's blog... :P