Crank Brothers’ New 117g Lightweight Iron Stem

Written by Tyler Benedict Apr 15, 2010 12:01 a.m. ET

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Crank Brothers is debuting their all-new, totally sick Iron Stem today at Sea Otter…along with lots of other goodies.

The new mountain bike stem is super lightweight 7075 aluminum at 117g for the 100mm Cobalt 3 model.Â There will be both a Cobalt and Iodine version of the stem, which if you look at their wheels, that means an XC/Race (Cobalt) and an All-Mountain (Iodine) version…and we’re guessing the 117g is going to be the XC-oriented piece.

MSRP is set for $90 (Iodine 2) and $130 (Iodine 3 and Cobalt 3), and at the moment we don’t know what the differences are between the “2” and the “3” trim level.Â Sizes are 80, 90, 100, 110 and 120mm.Â The stems work via a “wedge and plunger” system.Â Tighten the screw and it pulls two wedges against the backside of the black “plunger” plates.Â As they compress, they push the plunger against the bar and steerer tube.

More pics after the break…

The stem’s steerer clamp has a 45mm stack height, and the stem is made only for oversized 31.8mm diameter handlebars. Rise is +/- 6Âº.Â 1-1/8″ steerer only.

Tyler Benedict

11,187 articles

Tyler Benedict is the Founder of Bikerumor.com. He has been writing about the latest bikes, components, and cycling technology for almost two decades. Prior to that, Tyler launched and built multiple sports nutrition brands and consumer goods companies, mostly as an excuse to travel to killer riding locations throughout North America.

Based in North Carolina, Tyler loves family adventure travel and is always on the lookout for the next shiny new part to make his bikes faster and lighter.

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Cor

14 years ago

Does that mean you have to completely strip one side of your bar in order to put it on?

Mikey

14 years ago

It does look like it doesn’t it? Although that doesn’t seem as daunting not at days with things like lock grips. The grips are what’s annoying to take off and put on if you don’t have the lock-on types.

7075 Aluminum is light and very strong, but brittle and susceptible to cracking/shattering if it does happen to reach that high failure point. Not sure if I would trust these right away… I’ve had a thomson x4 faceplate crack in half on me before which is also 7075.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had 6061 aluminum components fail on me before under less stress, but more like a “crack and bend” kind of thing as opposed to a “crack and send shrapnel everywhere”

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Tyler Benedict

14 years ago

Reply to Mikey

Hmmm, it does look like you’ll need to strip one side of the bar. I’ll check them out at the “official” launch here at Sea Otter and report back.

Adam

14 years ago

I saw this in the Performance Bike catalog and online. Crank Bros has new pedals and most of the Iodine and Cobalt series are listed.
1 is for beginners
2 is for experienced
3 is serious riders
11 is pro-level