A couple of days ago I received a nice little package of things to be tested. It’s the new “Symmetric stem” and the yet to be named cassette hub from Simple Bikes.

The stem is short (49mm reach) and works about the same as the previous frontload stem, the “System”. It’s got an internal wedge/piston that transfers clamping force from the four front bolts via the handlebars to the streerer tube of the forks. It’s called symmetric because it is the same either way you run it.

The cassette hub is based around the same internals as the Proper hub and has been modified to utilize an internally threaded female axle with 10mm studs. The axle has been custom made to use push-on endcones for easy assembly/disassembly. The hubshell has got big radiuses, no sharp corners and minimal flanges with a staggered spoke hole pattern for lacing all spokes on the inside of the flange, aka “superlace”.

This is not the final shape of the hub shell and some things may probably change before production.