Carbon road bikes are getting really affordable..

[cantunamunch]

I don't see how the shocked stem is better than a shocked fork/head tube. I do agree about the return on investment being greater. First world problems. Will probably not jump either way right now.

Well, "better than" was never alleged above. But, this being the Internet, there is already a video exploring the topic, and the guy is even a rec cyclist of a roughly similar stripe to what you've described yourself as:

 

[Plai]

Well, "better than" was never alleged above. But, this being the Internet, there is already a video exploring the topic, and the guy is even a rec cyclist of a roughly similar stripe to what you've described yourself as:

@cantunamunch to your search skills. I actually had this question rolling in my empty head most of the weekend, and was wondering if my gut reaction of "which was better" was wrong. This video came to the same concerns and highlighted them.

My intended use case is road riding (vs the gravel riding in the video - as you noted)...
1. bottoming out in (small-ish) potholes -- having an active shock might be softer entering a pot hole, but would kill some of the momentum needed to escape.

2. performance on turns -- hitting roughness/road unevenness -- don't really want a lot of travel here...just a quieting of the vibrations to smooth things out....

Thanks for finding something else for me to spend money...

 

[Tricia]

It just occurred to me that @scott43 started this thread as well as this one >>> Disturbing Prices

 

[scott43]

It just occurred to me that @scott43 started this thread as well as this one >>> Disturbing Prices

I did notice that as well! I suppose my apparent contradiction is that low-end carbon has come way down but high-end carbon seems to be more prevalent..like the low-end of the market is purposely limited to push people into higher level builds. Not sure that's as true as I thought after all this discussion. It has been an interesting read for me.

 

[cantunamunch]

My intended use case is road riding (vs the gravel riding in the video - as you noted)...
1. bottoming out in (small-ish) potholes -- having an active shock might be softer entering a pot hole, but would kill some of the momentum needed to escape.

2. performance on turns -- hitting roughness/road unevenness -- don't really want a lot of travel here...just a quieting of the vibrations to smooth things out....

Thanks for finding something else for me to spend money...

Sure I get you and just to make sure here are some 'features' from the southern end of my route home

Using a suspension stem on the top two is like using a case of Band Aids on a gun shot wound. The only answer to pavement like that is a tire at least 33mm wide, with appropriately low pressure.

The third one - there a suspension stem does help.

In all cases, suspension stems are to be regarded as an intermediate solution, cushier than bar tape fixes and frame materials alone but nowhere nearly as much of a problem fix as tire size and pressure.

 

[scott43]

In all cases, suspension stems are to be regarded as an intermediate solution, cushier than bar tape fixes and frame materials alone but nowhere nearly as much of a problem fix as tire size and pressure.

QFT...

 

[cantunamunch]

Herself's new toy