USE (Ultimate Sports Engineering) are probably better known for their excellent range of bike lights but they also have a range of bike components for which they use the brand name “Ultimate”. One such component is the Vybe Duro suspension seatpost.

This particular post is made from aluminium and gives up to 50mm of travel that is controlled by an elastomer/spring stack contained inside the seat post shaft. There are no pivots or springs visible, just a neat shaft entering the post via a wiper seal. It is very reminiscent of a dropper post in looks but it does not function like a dropper.

When ordering the post it’s important to check the rider weight guide and choose the density of spring and elastomer that you’ll need. I’m not the most svelte of riders so I went with the hard spring option, but you can buy the others, soft, med etc if you want to change the rate of compression or you lose or gain weight.

the post is available in all the popular seat tube diameters (this one is 27.2mm) and the clamp is a very simple to use clam shell design with one single bolt to adjust fore-aft and pivot up and down. if you have a carbon rail saddle or one with unusual shape rails you’ll need to specify this when ordering. My saddle is bog standard and it took literally seconds to fit and adjust, a refreshing change from some complicated designs on other posts.

Adjustment to the post is via a threaded disc at the end of the shaft, a simple turn with an Allen key to compress or uncompress the spring is all there is to it. It’s very maintenance shy people friendly! I popped the post into the bike, set the height while it was at full extension and went off in search of something bumpy to ride.

Over the course of the next couple of months I was able to try the post out in both sopping wet and muddy and bone hard dry conditions. the first ride i noticed the post had a quite harsh and loud top out clunk (when the post extended back after being compressed down) For the next ride I wound in the disc inside the post a few turns and this stopped the clunk completely.

It’s very hard to photograph a suspension seatpost working while you are sat on it and harder to video without a film crew following you filming your backside, i wouldn’t inflict that on anyone so what i did do is ask anyone riding with me to have a look as we were riding along to check to see if the post was moving. The thing is when you get the post dialled in the movement is quite subtle and you hardly notice it. I can say definitely that it works though from the feedback from riders staring at my ass! When the going got really bumpy, the time any normal person would stand on the pedals and absorb the bumps with their legs I chose to stay seated, just for testing purposes and I could feel the post working then.

At 434g (on my bog standard non verified set of scales) the Vybe post is never going to be as light as a standard seat post but a standard seatpost will not give you that little bit of give that could mean the difference of a longer day in the saddle and quicker recovery from the chatter of rough trails to ride again the next day and that is worth a few extra grams in my mind. I didn’t notice it moving too much when riding on tarmac either.

The fact that the post is pretty much maintenance free, just wipe it down post ride is a bonus too. I have to say compared to parallelogram designs the Vybe is a lot prettier to look at and it looks like a quality item. I chose the layback version as the post it was replacing on that particular bike had layback too but a non layback version is available also.

The Ultimate USE Vybe Duro shockpost is a well made, dare i say attractive suspension seatpost that really works, if you suffer lower back problems from the jarring some gravel routes give then it could be a solution for longer more comfortable rides and recovery. Its very user friendly too so popping it on for those rough rides and using a standard post for less violent stuff could be an option too.

find out more about the seatpost here Ultimate USE

If you are looking for inspiration for your next ride, be it long or short then look no further than either of these two books, bike packing Wales by Emma Kingston and bike packing Scotland by Markus Stitz

I feel its ok to review these two books side by side because rather than competing with each other they in fact compliment each other. look no further than these two books if you want to dip your toe in the bike packing water or are a seasoned leathery skinned wanderer as there are easier routes for the inexperienced (me!) to full on out there riding on lumpy terrain for those with more experience.

The full colour pictures just make you want to drop whatever you are doing, check the air in your tyres and head out the door on an adventure. A tremendous amount of work has gone into these books from both authors, there’s so much detail. not just about the route and the conditions you can expect at various times of year but also what to look out for on your ride. places of interest you might have just ridden past are listed as well as the essentials like food stops, pubs and bike shops.

The maps are comprehensive and detailed but as you probably won’t want to carry the book with you on the rides there are downloadable GPX file links for every route making it simple to transfer the route to you mapping computer of choice.

You can of course adapt the routes to suit yourself, I adapted a route from the Forest of Dean into Wales as i was tight on time and this is one of the things I like about these books, they are very versatile, you can dip in and out of them, use the published route or join them up for a longer ride. all the rides are graded and the grading system is explained so you get an idea if the route is suitable for you before you start.

The thing I like most about them though is Emma and Markus’s enthusiasm for just riding a bike as it seems to shine through on every page.

If you’ve ever thought about bike packing or just want to go ride your bike in some wonderful places bike packing Wales and bike packing Scotland are must have books, and even if you haven’t thought about it they are worth buying just to look at, i can’t guarantee you won’t be tempted to swing a leg over a bike and ride off into the countryside though!

you can buy these books direct from the publisher, always a good idea for the author

Bike packing Wales by Emma Kingston

Bike packing Scotland by Markus Stitz

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The picture above is the first one I can find of me with a gravel bike back in 2018, I’d been dabbling by adding gravel-esque tyres to my rigid forked 29er MTB in the months before but although a flat bar gravel bike is now a thing I don’t think it counted way back then.

I was lucky enough to be working in a bike shop at the time and the manager let me use the demo gravel bike that we got in for the showroom. I was to showcase this new fangled bike genre and we thought having a bike that looked like it had been used as intended, i. e.- off road, would attract more customers to the idea than a nice shiny showroom pony. I wasn’t going to argue so for around 6 months I got to ride a Trek Checkpoint AL5 iirc. This was in the days before GRX and so the bike came with a Shimano 105 groupset. To preserve the drivetrain as the bike would be sold after the demo period I swapped the double chainset (even back then I felt the 50-34 road ratio was not ideal for an off road bike) for a cobbled together 38t single ring and added a wider range rear cassette which I think was an 11-44, revolutionary at the time! and added a frame bag to carry my lunch and cake money, again, nothing has changed there and went out exploring.

I’d ridden a road bike now and then but was always more of a MTB rider and while the MTB is great for exploring rugged off road routes, where I live the off road is pretty tame and can only be accessed by using roads or tarmac and even then the off road sections are short and sweet. The gravel bike then was the right tool for the job. I could ride 50 miles and the route could consist of 35 miles of tarmac and only 15 of off road but the tarmac bits wouldn’t be as tedious as they would be on a MTB and on the gravel bike if i spotted a new to me bridleway or track I could ride it to explore where it went, something I’d have been hesitant to do on a pure road bike for fear of punctures, mud and tyre clearance etc.

For me this was why gravel bikes were so exciting, it opened up areas I’d dismiss as too far away by MTB or even worse, that I’d have to drive to first before riding. The gravel bike for me was very much like getting your first proper bike when you were a kid, the difference from only being able to play outside your house and not being allowed to go further than the end of your road to being able to ride to the local park or woods (and further, sorry Mom and Dad!)

In its infancy gravel seemed the refuge away from the ultra serious road riders and believe me some of the customers who came in the shop were way too serious about road bikes and wanting to look like pro road riders to the point of duplicating the bike set ups of their hero’s even though it was clearly too extreme a position for them and was causing issues, with their full trade team kit, even though they weren’t sponsored #FKW For Gravel riding there were no rules, you could wear what you liked, ride what you liked, If you met up with other gravel riders it was more about the chat, the sharing of trails and routes and there was no mention of “you must be able to maintain this *insert inflated kph figure* to be able to ride with us and there definitely wasn’t a “if you get dropped, you’re on your own” rule that seems to be applied to every road club I’ve been involved with. I’ve taken riders out for their first gravel ride and their only experience was having ridden with road clubs and they are astonished that someone in the group would volunteer to go ahead and open a gate and wait until everyone else was through before shutting it and then catching up. “I can’t believe how everyone mucks in and supports each other, I love it” is something or a variant of it I’ve heard many times in the last five years.

Group riding is awesome, so many shared experiences and laughs with no pressure to be a riding expert or Iron man distance fit and this area of gravel was growing and growing and I’ve met so many cool people by sharing my or their routes but then a little pandemic hit the world in 2020 and suddenly all group rides were restricted and solo riding was the thing to do.

This also was a boom time for the bike industry, gravel bikes were suddenly the thing to have, which is absolutely awesome but in promoting the gravel bike, companies began to sponsor riders or sponsor events, this is sort of great and yet also I think began the divergence of gravel. When things opened up again we’d gone from home grown events where everyone shared the route and did it at their own pace to “stage races” with timed stages where there was only one “winner” rather than everyone winning through the joy of shared adventure and experiences. The grass roots events in the USA such as Unbound Gravel went from something that riders were proud to just have finished to arguments about the use of aero bars, female riders being drafted by their male team mates to achieve a win and that old favourite trade team kits instead of wear whatever you feel comfortable in. There were now “race gravel bikes” light weight, minimal luggage mounts and steep head angles as well as “adventure gravel bikes” for mounting bike packing stuff and forgiving geometry for riding for days at a time if you wanted to. Ok, I can forgive this as a perk of the commercialisation of gravel as more choice is always a good thing. But someone was waiting in the wings to take this all to a new level.

Hello UCi, the governing body of cycle racing, never quick on the uptake it’s taken them a few years to stumble onto the band wagon bringing the UCi World gravel championships and qualifying events, pro licences for racing, rainbow jerseys and worst of all a rule book as thick as a Ebike down tube.

Don’t get me wrong, I like to watch cycle racing. I sit glued to the Spring classic road races and the Tour de France but now the “i can’t ride because I’m not that good” mentality has started to be heard in gravel racing. I conducted a poll via the 19k+ followers on my instagram account and asked what was stopping them either starting to ride gravel or going to gravel events or organising group rides themselves and by far the most popular response was “i don’t want to ruin other people’s ride because I’m not quick enough” or “my bike isn’t good enough” and this is my whole reason for writing this long ramble.

We need to get the message out that you should just get out and ride your bike, there are no rules, ride what you like, wear what you like. If you just want to ride to the top of a nearby hill and sit on your favourite bench and look at the view, then just do that. Ignore average speeds and distances covered, they are just numbers, your ride doesn’t need to be “epic” just because you see people doing extraordinary distances and trips on social media. Any and every ride is worth it compared to not riding. Ignore the commercialisation, if you want the latest bike and tech then get it, if you want to use your 1992 mtb, then do that too. Want to ride alone? that’s fine, want to share the fun? then why not plan a ride and meet up with other riders. Encourage others and lets stop gravel riding from becoming elitist and get back to how it started. Innovation and progress is good but lets also keep things simple and accessible for anyone to be able to join in.

NO RULES JUST RIDE

STOP! before you say “flex stem” I do know about those innovative stems that were about in the late 80s-early 90s and if I had a £ for every time someone mentions them when reading a review or looking at a picture of a modern suspension stem I would have enough cash to buy an original one!

The first thing to say about the Cane creek EEsilk stem is that it is not a substitute for a suspension fork. Stems like this are designed to dampen the vibrations coming off the front wheel of your rigid forked bike. There are a few of these stems on the market today and they are perfect for a gravel bike and allow more comfortable riding over rough ground. They reduce fatigue on your arms, shoulders and neck which means you can ride for longer and recover more quickly to ride the next day.

So how does the EESilk stem handle being on the front of a gravel bike ridden by someone not known for their finesse when riding?

The EEsilk stem is made of aluminium and offers up to 20mm of compliance, I received the 90mm version to test and this comes with a soft, medium and hard elastomer which controls the travel. An Extra firm elastomer is also available. The stem I tested weighs 231g. This stem includes what Cane Creek call the “compliance switch” This lever on the top of the stem allows on the fly change of compliance from soft to firm. Cane Creek offer a cheaper version without this switch.

Changing the elastomer is very easy, just a 4mm Allen key will remove the hard plastic wedge allowing the elastomer to be removed from the bottom of the stem and swapped for one with a different density. Reverse the process to secure the wedge into the stem. The bolt needs to be torqued up to no more than 2Nm though so investing in a quality torque wrench (very useful for all the bolts on your bike anyway) would be a good idea. if you don’t have one maybe visit your local bike shop and ask the mechanic to check it for you.

The EEsilk stem fits just like and ordinary stem so it was easy to fit to my bike, I first used the medium elastomer that came factory fitted and went in search of rough trails. I deliberately didn’t load the bike up with anything that I wouldn’t normally carry to give it a fair comparison against my normal stem. Immediately on fitting though i realised that the top cap computer mount I usually run would stop me being able to move the compliance lever, Cane Creek do sell an out front mount that fits to the face plate of the stem though. An ordinary -fits to bar- out front mount will fit perfectly, so something to consider when buying.

After an hour or so of riding on gravel fireroads and in the woods I really appreciated the amount of damping that the medium elastomer was giving me, it is very wrist and shoulder friendly, however even with the lever set to firm I found it too soft on smooth tarmac. When climbing out of the saddle the stem bobbed a little too much for my liking. I pedaled home and swapped to the hardest elastomer, luckily this is a 5 minute job. No need to remove the stem or bars from the bike, everything can be swapped in situ.

With the firm elastomer in place and the compliance lever set to firm it all but eliminated the bob on smooth surfaces, certainly to the point I stopped noticing it. In the soft lever position the stem obviously didn’t offer up as much compliance as the softer elastomer option but it gave enough to be noticeably more comfortable than a rigid stem. Throughout the test, which was ridden in a period of weather that ranged from 29+ degrees C with 80% humidity to very wet, gritty and muddy single figure temperatures the stem showed no side to side movement or flex and stayed completely silent, no squeaks or creaks. After longer length rides, say over 50 miles I noticed a significant difference in my arms and shoulders compared to my other bike with a standard stem. I even pedalled the same routes one with the EEsilk and one with standard stem with a day in between for recovery to try and give a fair comparison. Using the EESilk stem I didn’t suffer any hand or finger numbness which I had two days before on a standard stem.

If you are in the market for one of these stems, the Cane Creek EESilk stem is a great option to look at, it’s easy elastomer swap out without having to remove handle bars is a great feature while you dial in your preferred setting. This also means it’s easy to increase or decrease the compliance if loading the bike up with luggage for bike packing trips. I had a few messages asking how easy spares and different rated elastomers are to get. The UK Distributor, Extra UK assure me they have good stock of all parts so if you need to change the elastomer to the extra firm one etc it should be easy.

The Cane Creek EESilk stem works silently and efficiently and the ease of fit and adjustability makes it stand out. The compliance lever adds to the versatility allowing you to almost lock the stem out for smooth sections. On rough ground though is where it really shines, saving wrists, shoulders and neck from a battering. The only downside is you soon learn all about Flex-stems from everyone who was around BITD 🙂

more details can be found on the Cane Creek website here

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