Review: Redshift Sports Short ShockStop Stems - Mid-Term

 Note: Guitar Ted Productions received a Redshift Sports ShockStop stem at no charge for test and review. Guitar Ted was not paid nor bribed for this review and will strive to give his honest thoughts and opinions throughout. 

The Redshift Sports ShockStop Stem is nothing 'new', but having them available in shorter lengths is. I have the 55mm length but there is also a 70mm stem as well. You can check out all the details and first impressions on this stem HERE. Check out that link for those fine details. 

This post will describe what the ShockStop Stem is and what it is not. Then I will get on to my latest riding experiences with this product. After a few more weeks living with the product and getting in some more rides, I will give my final verdict. 

The stem doesn't look any different from any other stem.

Suspension vs Vibration Reduction:

I've seen stems like this being discussed on forums and on social media and it becomes quite clear that some people expect things out of products like the Redshift ShockStop stem that are not really there. 

Some people speak of "a lack of suspension.." and if that is you, the ShockStop Stem is a misunderstood product. It is not a suspension product. (And even Redshift may disagree with me on this.) It is a vibration damping product. 

Think of the ShockStop stem like this, and perhaps you might have a better understanding of the product. It is like a motor mount in a car. You, as the rider, are the 'motor' and in an automobile, motor vibrations are damped and prevented from affecting the passengers and the handling of the car by motor mounts. These mounts typically have a rubber-like element to them which isolates vibrations and engine movement. The bicycle version Redshift makes works a bit like that, only in reverse. The vibrations coming up through the bike generated at the wheels are isolated by the ShockStop Stem's elastomeric elements and by a slight amount of travel. 

Suspension is a completely different idea where forces exerted on a wheel like potholes, rail road tracks, rocks, or the like cause a wheel to "travel" in some sort of way due to a mechanism (typically telescopic) and a damper controls that wheel and dissipates energy in the form of heat. Vibrations are not really what suspension is meant for. It is a way to keep your wheels in constant contact with the ground and the bicycle moving in the direction the rider intended. Suspension provides better control first. 

Riding Impressions: An example of what the Redshift ShockStop Stem is very good at was something I experienced on a recent ride. I was riding alongside a paved county road on the shoulder. This is where farm tractor traffic is often driven as well. Tractors have a way of leaving impressions of their widely spaced, long bars of tread in the gravel shoulder which when ridden over on a bicycle can cause a pretty severe vibration. The ShockStop Stem, in conjunction with my 29" X 2.8" tires, no doubt, completely erased these inputs. My hands were calm and un-buzzed at the handle bars. 

What the ShockStop Stem wasn't so good at was where I was riding at one point on a dirt road which had been extremely rutted up when it was muddy by tractors and 4 X 4 vehicles. This mud had hardened and was like rock. Every big ridge and exposed rock in this part of the dirt road caused me to be bumped and the bike to be knocked a bit off-line. A suspension fork, tuned correctly, would have erased this easily, but a vibration reducing stem? Not so much. 

To be perfectly clear, the ShockStop Stem did take the edge off those hits, and it is really nice when it does that for you, but it does not improve the handling of the bike to any great degree. That job would be for suspension of some sort. Something with real wheel travel along the lines of 80mm - 120mm. Then we'd be talking some handling improvement talk. 

Navigating the ruts and bumps in this road was not really enhanced by the stem I was using.

So Far... The Redshift ShockStop Stem does a really great job isolating those rattling vibrations and the buzz I often have to endure on our gravel roads when I am not using a bike with the ShockStop Stem. My hands are really susceptible to numbness and aching if I don't have something to absorb vibrations. For myself, having the ShockStop Stem on this bike, (and a few of my other ones as well) makes riding gravel a lot more enjoyable. 

Plus these stems are transferable to most bicycles I want to ride. The stem is not a proprietary, built in piece, and the Redshift Stems are really sturdy. I have had no issues at all with durability regarding this product. The 55mm length works really well, and the travel is noticeable at times. However, mostly the ShockStop Stem just damps out a lot of buzz that would otherwise make my rides not very enjoyable.

Stay tuned for a final review to come in a few weeks.