Race Face System Stem

4.41/5 (111 Reviews)
MSRP : $70.00


Product Description

CNC machined 6061-T6 uses no welds in the construction, giving it incredible strength and durability. Available in a wide range of sizes and colors to give your steed some hot rod charm.


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Reviews 1 - 15 (111 Reviews Total) | Next 15

User Reviews

Overall Rating:5
Value Rating:5
Submitted by Chuck a Cross Country Rider from Boise, Idaho

Date Reviewed: September 17, 2006

Strengths:    Looks cool. Does what it's supposed to.

Bottom Line:   
This is the best looking stem out there. I could drop about 100 grams with something else that's just as sturdy but I like the way it blings my bike.

Expand full review >>

Duration Product Used:   1 Year

Price Paid:    $10.00

Purchased At:   online

Bike Setup:   Steel Hardtail.

Overall Rating:5
Value Rating:5
Submitted by Fooman a Weekend Warrior from Paisley, Scotland

Date Reviewed: April 20, 2006

Strengths:    Easy set up, strength, looks

Weaknesses:    None

Bottom Line:   
Fantastic Stem, not a sound, rattle or hum for the last 2 years.

Set it up and left it, it fits my Kore bar perfectly, theres no rust, and its hardly even chipped which is amazing given my frame is on its way out.

Expand full review >>

Favorite Trail:   Third one from the left

Duration Product Used:   2 Years

Price Paid:    $80.00

Purchased At:   Chain reaction cycles

Similar Products Used:   Trek non-descript thai special

Bike Setup:   Trek 6000, Rock Shox, Raceface, Kore, X-Lite, Hope

Overall Rating:5
Value Rating:5
Submitted by Ivan from C-Springs

Date Reviewed: July 26, 2005

Strengths:    Cheap. THese are on closeout everywhere.

Weaknesses:    none yet

Bottom Line:   
I bought this stem because it was on sale at one of the online stores. You can find them ~ 50% of MSRP. Nice 4 bolt front and 2 bolt stem clamps. Stem has held up well to my SS ways.

Expand full review >>

Favorite Trail:   Pancake Rocks

Duration Product Used:   6 months

Purchased At:   CBO or Jenson

Bike Setup:   full rigid

Overall Rating:5
Value Rating:5
Submitted by Ferd a Weekend Warrior from Cumming, Ga

Date Reviewed: June 7, 2005

Strengths:    solid no brainer installation

Bottom Line:   
This was great stem. It twisted aprox 12 to 15 deg. I called raceface and the said they never heard of one of these stems twisting. ha da easton ec70 bar it cracked at the interface but did not break. raceface said they would look at the stem and probably replace it. I hope so if not 5 years is a good run

Expand full review >>

Duration Product Used:   More than 3 years

Similar Products Used:   Kore Thompson

Bike Setup:   K2 5000 LT raceface thompson easton mavic

Overall Rating:5
Value Rating:4
Submitted by Joe a Cross Country Rider from OH

Date Reviewed: December 19, 2004

Strengths:    strong, stiff, works

Weaknesses:    none

Bottom Line:   
I've used it for 1.5 years and had no problems. stiff and rigid. I actually bought a used one on ebay and then a new one because I liked it so much and could not resist the price. The used one had some rust on the bolts, which are supposedly rust proof? Race face sent me new bolts, what a great company. I've replaced it with the RF Deus though because I needed something shorter on my new bike and had one laying around. You can get these on ebay brand new for a good price too.

Expand full review >>

Favorite Trail:   vultures knob

Duration Product Used:   1 Year

Price Paid:    $35.00

Purchased At:   Ebay

Similar Products Used:   Kore elite (stripped threads), deus

Bike Setup:   Titus switchblade, RF next cranks, Marz forks, Mavic 3.1rims on Sh XT hubs, RF stem, Thomson seatpost, candy pedals, WTB saddle, Cane creek headset, Hutch spyder ust tires, Avid discs, Rogue lock on grips and some other stuff.

Overall Rating:5
Value Rating:5
Submitted by eric hadzima a Cross Country Rider from rockville md

Date Reviewed: November 30, 2004

Strengths:    looks great . avilible in many colors and its a part that you put on and leave alone . the bolts are super strong and wont strip

Weaknesses:    none

Bottom Line:   
great for a rider that wants to make his or her ride
different from another . oh yah there on sale now for like 20 bucks on line

Expand full review >>

Favorite Trail:   patapsco

Duration Product Used:   1 Year

Price Paid:    $18.00

Purchased At:   performance

Similar Products Used:   bonty race lite /race , amoba ,ritchy

Bike Setup:   fisher xtr-xt bonty race tubeless, hot-s,fox talas

Overall Rating:5
Value Rating:5
Submitted by Tony a Weekend Warrior from Earth

Date Reviewed: July 4, 2004

Strengths:    Super stiff
No noise


Weaknesses:    Not one-piece design like Thomson

Bottom Line:   
As if another positive review is needed...

When you install a stem and never hear from it again (I mean that literally), you know it works. Combined with the RaceFace bar, it's completely silent. Only wish the stem came as a one-piece design - but when it works this well, I realize I'm nitpicking.

Expand full review >>

Duration Product Used:   More than 3 years

Similar Products Used:   Thomson
Ritchey


Bike Setup:   Yeti ARC

Overall Rating:4
Value Rating:5
Submitted by mark b. a Weekend Warrior from ft wayne, in

Date Reviewed: May 28, 2004

Strengths:    RF! Stiff, does not flex; good looks -- "ruggedly handsome"

Weaknesses:    limited compatability

Bottom Line:   
a perfect match for the bar! there is NO movement in this combo, no noise, nothing but pure transfer of rider input. Light (makes the whole bike feel 2 lb lighter)w/ the carbon bar, and is a pleasure to the fingers (when i roll it in & out of work for commutes, i steer by the stem). After the extra time on this combo, I can only say YEAAHH, BABY YEAAHH!!

Expand full review >>

Favorite Trail:   unblocked!

Duration Product Used:   6 months

Purchased At:   online

Similar Products Used:   RF Prodigy, Profile BOA, OEM crap

Bike Setup:   motobecane x4b2.0, black fork, xt crank, deore-sunDS-2, profile carbon riser

Overall Rating:4
Value Rating:4
Submitted by mark b. a Weekend Warrior from ft wayne, in, usa

Date Reviewed: February 25, 2004

Strengths:    exotic looks, stiff (so far)

Weaknesses:    limited success with other bars, works best w/ my profile carbon

Bottom Line:   
can't flex the stem or the bars! stiff, light (lighter bar/stem combo than my bar alone!). doesn't work near as well w/ the titec bar i have, so be careful of the bar you use with it.

Expand full review >>

Favorite Trail:   the one in front of me

Duration Product Used:   Less than 1 month

Price Paid:    $40.00

Purchased At:   online

Similar Products Used:   RF prodigy, profile BOA

Bike Setup:   black fork, profile carbon riser, XT, deore/sun ds-2

Overall Rating:5
Value Rating:4
Submitted by Doug a Weekend Warrior from Cleveland, oh, USA

Date Reviewed: October 4, 2003

Strengths:    Looks damn cool, respect from the name alone causes people to tremble in my wake, or perhaps it's the lightning bolts I conjure up from my fingertips to strike down the unworthy... One of the two.

Weaknesses:    The System stem has a SHORT clamp height on the steer tube- Beware! If you ever want to replace it, think about using shims to make up the difference, or suffer the consequences of needing a new fork, as well, because not many stems will fit afterwards, especially stock and/or cheapie replacements. It's more expensive than most.

Bottom Line:   
As a large, 6'3", 275lb man, I can assure you that the pressures I exert on this stem will be greater than anything you can come up with in your wildest imaginations. Even buying this used (very nice condition), I have yet to have a single problem with it, other than needing new spacers to compensate for the shorter clamp height. PLEASE NOTE: stems such as these are aluminum, and have a set amount of torque that they can take before the mounting threads stretch. DO NOT yank on the bolts like an ape- you're being as counterproductive as possible. TO all those who hate this stem because it loosens up in 20 minutes or whatever, you've gone too far already. No amount of grease, or locktite, or praying to your favorite God will help you now. You MIGHT get away with Heli-Coiling the holes and starting over with less torque. Even Heli-coils, though, have torque limits. You do NOT need to crank down on one of these things to get it tight! Max torque should be around 15lbs/ft? It's only a little bolt!

Expand full review >>

Favorite Trail:   streets

Duration Product Used:   1 Year

Price Paid:    $45.00

Purchased At:   Ebay

Similar Products Used:   stock crap, stock on Schwinns, stock on Treks, Titec (who hasn't?)

Bike Setup:   Pre-bankruptcy Schwinn Mesa GSX, with an 'under construction' sign hanging around its neck. '04 marz MX Comp with ETA due in three days!

Overall Rating:5
Value Rating:4
Submitted by Gary White a Cross Country Rider from London, UK

Date Reviewed: September 13, 2003

Strengths:    Very strong, quite low weight, no movement or creaking - an excellent clamping system, good range of sizes and degrees of rise

Weaknesses:    Absolutely none apart from price, but you get what you pay for....

Bottom Line:   
Another excellent Race Face product.

Expand full review >>

Favorite Trail:   Old Springs Trail, Marin, Ca

Duration Product Used:   More than 3 years

Price Paid:    $90.00

Purchased At:   Cycle Surgery, London, UK

Similar Products Used:   Race Face Prodigy, Easton EA50 & 70

Bike Setup:   Santa Cruz Superlight A (2001 frame), Fox Float RLC 100mm forks, Mavic Crossmax XL wheelset, Panaracer UST Trailblaster tires, Race Face Turbine LP crankset, XT cassette, Sachs PC69 chain, Race Face stem, carbon Monkeylite bars and seat post, Shimano 959 pedals, XTR shifers and mechs, Hope Mini brakeset

Overall Rating:5
Value Rating:5
Submitted by Daniel a Weekend Warrior from Greensboro

Date Reviewed: August 28, 2003

Strengths:    I never had to think about it

Weaknesses:    Heavy. but that makes it strong

Bottom Line:   
I bought this stem two and half years ago. You know its good when you don't think about it. I have taken it apart to remove the fork and the handler bars several time and i never worried about strippen the bolts. its a good stem

Expand full review >>

Duration Product Used:   2 Years

Price Paid:    $35.00

Purchased At:   EBAY

Bike Setup:   Airborne,XT,XTR,fox forx

Overall Rating:5
Value Rating:4
Submitted by Mike a Cross Country Rider from Grand Forks, ND

Date Reviewed: April 24, 2003

Strengths:    srong, looks good

Weaknesses:    a little spendy if bought new

Bottom Line:   
great stem all around

Expand full review >>

Favorite Trail:   any singletrack

Duration Product Used:   6 months

Price Paid:    $20.00

Purchased At:   Ebay

Similar Products Used:   titec

Bike Setup:   Surly 1x1 w/ Z2 X-fly, RaceFace Crankset, XT BB, Surly 1x1 rear hub/freewheel, Mavic rims, Speedplay Frogs, 34:16 gear ratio

Overall Rating:5
Value Rating:5
Submitted by Charlie Doble a Cross Country Rider from San Juan, Puerto Rico

Date Reviewed: May 5, 2002

Strengths:    Strong, stiff, relatively light, and looks awesome to boot.

Weaknesses:    Whatever!

Bottom Line:   
Excellent stem. And since I previously used a Thomson Elite, it really had enormous shoes to fill. Absolutely no creaking or noises (lightly greased all screws and threads with Finish Line Teflon Grease before installation, obviously). Very stiff, makes me feel very secure no matter what type of terrain I tackle. RaceFace has earned my respect!

Expand full review >>

Duration Product Used:   6 months

Price Paid:    $62.00

Purchased At:   Jenson USA

Similar Products Used:   Thomson Elite

Bike Setup:   Trek Y2K 7000, XT hollowtech splined cranks, XT cassette, XT shifter/lever set, XTR V-Brakes, XTR rear and front der., Race Face Air Alloy Flat Bars and Good n'Evil grips, Cane Creek Ergo Control bar ends, Mavic CrossRide Wheels, Race Face XY seatpost, Race Face System Stem, Selle Itallia Prolink TransAm saddle, Time ATAC pedals, Salsa Skewers and Lip-Lock seat collar, SRAM PC-99 chain, Hutchinson Python Gold front tire, Hutchinson Mosquito Gold rear tire, hell, the only stock component left is the metal flake yellow frame...!

Overall Rating:2
Value Rating:2
Submitted by grant a Cross Country Rider from sale, victoria,australia

Date Reviewed: March 6, 2002

Strengths:    Looks good, and finishes my bike with its other raceface bits.

Weaknesses:    It creaks and moans and makes more noise than the rest of my bike and my mate's bike put together.

Bottom Line:   
The stem seems to work fine. It just makes so much bloody noise. I tried to fault find my front end creaks and ruled out the stem because it was from "raceface". What a joke. It takes more than a good name to be successful for the long term. If this stem performed as advertised I would certainly recommend it to my friends and also buy another myself, but it doesn't. Raceface just lost another half dozen potential sales. That doesn't make good sense to anyone, even a top canadian company like Raceface. They must have known from R and D that their stem design creaks, or why else does the new high-end stem design look so different. Does it work? Convince me Raceface.

Expand full review >>

Duration Product Used:   2 Years

Price Paid:    $80.00

Similar Products Used:   Syncros, Azonic

Bike Setup:   80mm Hardtail (Reyolds 853 now Ti)

Reviews 1 - 15 (111 Reviews Total) | Next 15

Review Options:  Sorted by Latest Review | Sort by Best Rating

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