05/16/2008

Straitline Components is a new player in the aftermarket bike components business. The company has been making MX components, as well as precision medical, deep sea, and aviation components for a number of years, though, and has high-tech aluminum machining process down to an exact science. They've set up shop in Sidney, B.C., located half an hour north of Victoria on Vancouver Island.

Straitline made its grand entrance into the bike market at Interbike 2006, and since then product has slowly been making its way onto trails and the streets. The buzz about Straitline, however, has been travelling at close to light speed. These are definitely the hottest components in a long time. Quality, a range of colours, and impressive attention to detail are the hallmarks of Straitline components, and they certainly stand out wherever you see them.

We got our hands on a number of Straitline goodies and have been riding them in between snowstorms on the Shore. Here's the lowdown.

Bash rings
Bash rings are a useful item on trails that have obstacles, big or small. They take the place of a big chainring that would get hung up on roots, rocks, or logs, and they protect the middle and granny rings from damage. On the Shore, they're basically a necessity. Street riders also put them to good use when they're doing grinds or stalls.

Straitline offers two different styles of 104mm, four-bolt bashguards: serrated and octagonal. The octagonal bash rings are slightly concave, to provide a better balance point for sprocket stalls. The rings are available in medium for 32-34T chainrings and large for 38-40T rings. Weight is 120g and 220g, respectively, for the 5mm thick ring. You can choose from black, ti grey, pink, white, or limited-edition X-ray colours. Price is $49 for all colours.

The serrated bash ring, canted forward to give you some traction going over obstacles.

A couple of things to note about the bash rings: the heads on some sizes of chainring bolts won't fit through the bolt holes in the ring. I had to switch out the bolts from my FSA crankset for something smaller. The other thing that you'll notice is that the aluminum around the bolt holes has been contoured to match the profile of the holes. As a result, it doesn't match up with the spider on the crankarm, which is basically rectangular. This may have been for weight savings, but from an aesthetic perspective it looks mismatched. I'd rather sacrifice those few grams for a cleaner look on the crankarm.

Bar end caps Bar end caps save you from taking inadvertent core samples with your handlebar. They're also a nice way to finish the look of your bars. Straitline makes two different shapes of caps, both of which are designed to be used with ODI Lock on-compatible grips: tapered and moto style, and come in either aluminum or titanium flavours. The caps attach to the bar with a single set screw on the bottom, and hold the grips in place with two notches that match up with flanges on the inner sleeve of your grips. I've got two pairs of Straitline caps, and while one matches up perfectly with the grips, there's a bit

Black, tapered bar end caps with the Straitline logo

Colour options include: gold, ti grey, black, green, blue, red, pink, and X-ray. Pricing is $24 for the regular caps, and $64 for the titanium version.

Pedals
There are literally dozens of flat pedals to choose from. Some are good, while others are complete crap. Bearings implode and get sloppy or stop spinning completely, pins are torn out with annoying regularity, the axles bend, the pedals are too thick, the body of the pedal gets beat beyond recognition, they have no grip, you name it.

When you ride here on the Wet Coast, you run into bearing contamination on a regular basis. Pedals on the Shore spend a good portion of their life in the muck, mud, and water, and if the bearings aren't protected from the elements, they die an untimely death.

Straitline has tackled the problem with double redundant seals on both ends of the pedal axle, as well as polymer bushings instead of bearings. The bushings don't require lube and aren't affected by water. They don't spin freely like bearings, but that doesn't affect performance and the bushings are supposed to loosen up over time.

Straitline also noted, "the pedal is retained by two heavy duty retainer clips. The first clip that retains the thrust washer is protected by a cup-shaped washer that is held in place by a second clip. This ensures there is no possibility of having the main retention clip knocked off in a severe impact, as has been the problem with similar designs. The design also distributes thrust loads equally between the two clips, effectively doubling the safe end load."

Cutaway of the Straitline pedal, showing the bushing and double seal || Photo: © Straitline

Key features include rounded edges so the pedals don't catch on things, a forward-leading design on the platform for more support, and a low profile for good control. There are 14 stainless steel traction pins per side, which Straitline says should be installed with a 3/16 six-point socket wrench. The pins themselves extend 4mm from the body of the pedal - about 1mm less than some other flat pedals. They also don't have quite as much bite as set screws used on some pedals, but Straitline also makes a set of death spikes that I'll be trying shortly. Apparently, they chew up the soles of your shoes. I can only imagine what they'll do to my calves.

The limited edition X-ray Straitline pedal, with the full compliment of pins.

The Straitline pedals use a 12mm cro-mo spindle and standard mountain bike threading, but they don't have an Allen key interface on the axle. Be sure to pack a pedal wrench if you're travelling with your bike. Weight is 518g per pair, and you've got a choice of black, ti grey, pink, and X-ray colours. MSRP on the pedals is $159, and $179 for the X-ray version.

I'm 220lbs. and not exactly the smoothest rider on the planet, so I tend to be hard on pedals. To put it mildly. Because of that, I'm really interested to see how the Straitline platforms hold up to some serious abuse. Stay tuned for a full review in a couple of months.

Stem
Straitline has taken a different approach with its stem, doing away with the standard pinch bolts in favour of a vertical wedge to hold onto the steerer tube. Wedge stems aren't a new idea - Syncros was doing it back in the '90s and Thomson's Elite stems use a wedge, to name a few - but Straitline puts a freeride / DJ spin on the whole concept and goes vertical instead of horizontal with the wedge.

The 50mm long, 31.8 clamp Straitline stem, in basic black

The stem boasts a huge amount of clamping force, but it still won't crush your steerer because the bolts bottom out at the max torque spec. The stem clamps 360° around the steerer at all times, meaning that this baby should never spin. Ever. Straitline says that you'll need a minimum of 1.38" and a maximum of 1.46" of steerer with this stem. That basically means no spacers under the top cap, so take that into consideration. You can also run it as a direct mount stem with a Marzocchi 888 fork, using two M5 hex bolts in the bottom of the stem. Choose from 25.4mm and 31.8mm bar diameters. The 25.4 comes in 55mm or 70mm lengths, with weights at 260g and 295g, respectively. The 31.8 is available in 50mm and 65mm lengths, and hits the scales at 224g and 268g. If you find yourself changing bar sizes a lot, there's also a reducer option for the 31.8mm stem. The two rings fit on the inside of the bar clamp portion of the stem, and are held in place with rubber o-rings. Stems are available in black, ti grey, or pink. Cost is $180, plus an additional $15 if you want the reducers.

The reducers and top cap - mix and match as necessary

Wanna talk about the gear? Here's the place to do it.