A good ten years ago, the first threadless headset appeared on racing bikes in Europe. However, the potential of the system, which became popular as the "Aheadset" - the brand name of the inventors - remained unrecognised for a long time and was only very hesitantly accepted by the market. Nowadays, hardly any road bikes are sold without the practical bearings that have fundamentally changed the bicycle in this area. Only threadless steerer tubes have made it possible for handlebars, stems and forks combined to weigh less than handlebars and stems before the Ahead era.
Apparently, this has become a lucrative market, as manufacturers of handlebars and stems are constantly launching new, imaginative models onto the market in quick succession. They entice and advertise with noble materials such as carbon or magnesium and occasionally cause confusion with new and inconsistent dimensions - the idea of oversizing does not stop at the handlebars.
Where marketing and visual aspects characterise development, safety is in danger of falling by the wayside. The rapid change of models often prevents new products from being properly designed and sufficiently tested before they are launched on the market. Despite the results of earlier TOUR tests and urgent warnings (TOUR 12/99 and 8/2000), there have been repeated cases of broken handlebars and failed stems in the recent past, sometimes with serious consequences for the riders. The current test is therefore also intended to show whether the manufacturers of the latest generation of handlebars and stems
show a corresponding sense of responsibility.
These eleven brands are in the test:
Cinelli, Deda, Easton, ITM, Modolo, 2 models from Ritchey, Schmolke/Tune, Syntace, 2 models from 3T
(Text: Dirk Zedler)
Downloads:
download
