In an effort to make our Speedster as comfortable for longer rides as possible, one of the upgrades I made was to carbon handlebars. The stoker’s bar is a wing style bullhorn that droops an inch or so from the center to the outer reaches. Ever since that change my stoker wanted to raise the bar an inch or two, but the 35 degree stem was already up against the underside of the captain’s seatpost.

One way that problem has been solved is with a two piece stem arrangement, but I’ve been reluctant to go that route due to the added weight and klugey appearance. Then I became aware that Calfee is offering a 50 degree "direct rise" stoker stem: https://calfeedesign.com/calfee-stoker-stem/ Apparently these are made by Craig Calfee himself.


35 degree adjustable stem


Calfee 50 degree carbon stem

We took our first ride with the new stem installed today. Besides having the handlebar in a better position,
my stoker immediately noticed a big reduction in vibration. Her comment was that she couldn’t feel anything coming
through to her hands, a significant improvement.

The 260 mm length carbon stem including steel hardware weighs 230 grams, about 1/3 pound less than the aluminum
ControlTech adjustable stem it replaced. All in all, a very successful upgrade.