Turtle Power

At the risk of alienating the small but perfectly formed readership that come here exclusively craving bmx product content, I'm going to post this thing:



Aaahhhh! Cover your eyes, it's a mountain bike stem!

That's true, but it is intriguing. Not least because the only information that I can find is in German and as a result I can't really work out what the fuck is going on and where the big innovation is. It's called the Strata btw and it's made by a company called Kodex.

My trusty German translator-ette, who turns out to be less trusty than required when it comes to technical bicycle terminology, leads me to believe that it's a three piece "sandwich" design that "almost completely encloses the handlebars" (hmmm... that's fine, but we are going to need a little bit sticking out at the sides to hold on to) and that "the screw torque is reduced", thus "decreasing the load at the clamp". Don't worry, I've already sacked her.

I see it like this:
It's an alien robot turtle head with lots of small screws in it, that despite being for mountain bikes would be very popular with kids should a bmx version be produced as the three part design allows for maximum mix'n'match colour coding combinations points and it weighs in at just 188 grams or 6.6 oz.



If you take a close look at the pic above you'll see that there does seems to be something going on with the compression cap being extended down into the stem where a flange on it is then sandwiched between the upper and lower parts of the stem. This innovation makes the *flangelessness* of regular stems seem blunt and pre-historic by comparison.

But seriously, if you actually do speak German could you do me a favour and have a quick read of this, this or this and let me know what the hell is going with this thing?