News | Pacenti PDent Makes Shorter Stems Possible
Kirk Pacenti presented his new, patented design that makes super short stems possible. A dimple in the centre of the bar creates enough room to accommodate the steerer tube, allowing the bar to be located closer to it.
“Riders have been using shorter and shorter stems for years to improve handling in increasingly technical terrain”, Pacenti explains. “And designers have started making frames with longer top tubes to accommodate them. But until now, the shortest practical stem available has been 30mm. Any shorter, and the handlebar runs into the bike’s steerer tube. Further evolution of frame geometry has come to a standstill due to the limitations of stem design.”
PDent allows to continue the evolution of frame geometry and to use stems that are shorter than 30mm. The dimple in the middle of the bar enables to use stems as short as 12mm.
Pacenti explains, “In CAD terms, the “dimple” is a swept radial cut forming a pocket that allows the bar to wrap around the steerer tube. The dimple is designed to allow for a range of head tube angles (63° – 69°), plus several degrees of fore/aft rotation.” Current sub-30mm stems placed the bars above the steerer tube, which always resulted in a huge rise and a high cockpit.
Text: Martin Stöckl | Pictures: Pacenti PR
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