Interesting take, Patrick. I agree wholeheartedly that "...stems with extensions used with drop bars, and bikes built to use them both, have been around too long to be mere mistakes in design." At the same time, it seems to me that Analog isn't saying bike design is wrong or that people have been making mistakes all this time. I do think that they're saying that the (W)right Stem is another way to find comfort on a bicycle, and that in their experience it doesn't affect a bike's handling in a negative way. Therefore, the result is a net positive for folks looking to use drop bars on bikes that would otherwise be generally swept-back bar or upright riders based on geometry.
One point I've seen them state somewhere is that modern MTBs use very, very short stems. Of course, this is based off of fundamental shifts in overall geometry that are aiming for a certain type of handling, but the point remains: modern MTB designers aren't (necessarily) saying that NORBA bikes were *wrong*. Really, current mountain bike designers are saying, "Maybe we learned something from what we came up with so far, and hey, maybe there's another way to do this that will work better for x or y reasons." And in my view Analog is saying something similar through the design and creation of their stems. In other words, it seems like Analog is saying here's another option rather than saying it's the only one. Bob K. in Baltimore -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
