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Deity Components 25.4 Handlebar & Stem
Jim - 5th April 2008
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Deity Components is a small component manufacturer operating out of Oregon in the USA. Eric Davies is the man behind the products, he is responsible for each part of the design, and not only this he designs and updates the website, answers customers queries and is an all round nice bloke!
I've known Eric for a good few years now, Deity first began back in 2004 and its been steadily growing since then, starting off with a simple product line-up which has slowly expanded to cranksets, stems, handlebars, saddles, seatposts and more. Not only that they rock some of the nicest softgoods around with clean, original designs.
When the chance was offered to do a long term test on a set of the handlebars I jumped at the oppurtunity. These bars are 28 inches wide (710mm) with a 50mm rise and a standard 25.4mm clamp size. They are also available in oversize 31.8mm diameter for those harder riders and with a 9 degree bend combined with a 5 degree upsweep it makes them pretty comfortable to hold. For me the 50mm rise is nice, being a taller rider its good to have a bit extra, but this might be a bit too much for some people, and prefer a smaller rise or even a flat bar for downhill.
A set of bars should be stiff, strong and preferably lightweight. These are all three, despite the test bike being built up for a number of uses, from cross country, to trails and finally downhill there had to be some form of compromise. Narrow bars are best for climbing as they offer the best riding position, whereas wide bars will make the bike feel more stable when tracking over rough ground on a downhill track. I never really put that much effort into climbing, and certainly not enough to sacrifice speed and control when going back down again, so wide bars it was. And the rise would be pretty similar to the bars I was running on my downhill bike back then.
These bars aren't especially wide (given reported claims that a number of riders are running 850mm bars) but they're still big enough to prove tricky on a few tight spots on XC courses. Fitting the bars was pretty simple, I've kept mine uncut, however there is plenty of bar left to cut them down while your grips still fit. However there aren't any increment markings, so it'll have to be measure twice cut once! There's also a problem with the angle markings, it can be tricky to read them if you are especially precise with your setup, I just fitted mine where they felt comfortable and tightened them up.. job done!
The stem has a 50mm length with a 0 degree rise, making it a pretty solid option for most downhill and jump bikes out there, it also has a very low stack height to keep the front end low should you want to run flat bars. It weighs in around 284g, which is quite heavy for most 25.4 stems, but there are no compromises here. In the same fashion as the handle bars it's available in black, white or a refreshing grey which we chose here. It looks very solid, however the centre is hollowed out, as well as machining of the rear of the stem. For 2008 Eric has made even more reductions in weight, cutting out wasted material where it's not needed, look out for that in shops soon.
The stem clamps onto the bars with 4 bolts, and the two steerer clamping bolts are at the side of the stem to minimise the damage to your knees!
While the bars are constructed from 2014 AL instead of 7075 AL this essentially means they will 'give' or bend slightly before they break, which is much more comforting, however this goes to show you shouldn't run a set of bars in downhill more than a few years, after that you're just asking for trouble.
The handlebars and stem are a refreshing design change from whats already on the market with sleek, minimalist graphics and a tidy selection of colours. The bars retail for £40, while the stem has an RRP of £45. Distribution in the UK is handled by ExtraUK. Check out Deity Components for all the latest news on the products, as well as the deity family of riders.
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