Weight: 153g/Lengths: 70, 75, 80, 90, 100, 105, 110, 120, 130, 140mm/Carbon top cap and spacers included/Clamp size: 31.8mm
Contact: Trek 01908 828626

Someone said recently that carbon isn’t black metal; you can’t just make components out of it in the same way as you use aluminium. This goes someway to explain the formed organic look of the XXX Lite. It’s not a light stem but the focus is on durability and toughness. It’s reasonably stiff and comes in massive array of sizes, you also get a carbon top cap and 40mm of spacers. The X-Band faceplate is cold forged but one of the holes on the front of the stem wasn’t cleaned out properly and there’s some rough finishing on the clamps — not a big deal but we’d expect better for £125. Two plastic spacers in the steerer slot stop crushing if you ignore the torque settings. The reversible 12-degree rise is a little tall but there’s stacks of sizes albeit for stacks of dosh.

MBR RATING: 7/10