Farr is bringing back a bit of retro off-road bullmoose cockpit style with their new split alloy Headspace stem. If you already thought their wild-looking aero gravel bar seemed cool or wanted a set of their mini bolt-on aerobars, you might need to add one of these to your wish list, too.
Farr Headspace alloy bullmoose gravel & MTB split stem
When the ultra-endurance & all-terrain bikepackers of Farr set out to design their own stem, they had no intention of trying to create another traditional-looking round stem or anything overly lightweight. Instead, feeling a bit nostalgic they were looking to go unique, with a bit of added endurance functionality.
Calling back to the dual-spar bullmoose stem & bar setups of the early days of off-road riding, the new Farr Headspace stem updates the idea with modern construction & sizing. Designed to fit modern 31.8mm bars, it could be just what you need to build up a new adventure bikepacking gravel bike or to dust off a vintage mountain bike for a modern update…
But Farr weren’t only trying to be different for different’s sake. The Headspace stem was designed to fit seamlessly with their mini Aero Bolt-On aero bars in carbon or alloy, eliminating the need for additional clamps and creating a cleaner multi-hand position setup.
Tech details
The Farr Headspace stem is available only in one size for now – Zero rise & 70mm extension. Farr thinks that is a gravel, bikepacking & trail riding sweet spot for a lot of riders. And if the Headspace gets a lot of traction, they promise more sizes will come.
The stem is hollow underneath, forged, then machined aluminum (no mention of what alloy). And at a claimed weight of ~175g it is said to be plenty stiff for technical trail riding, having far exceeded EN MTB standards in early testing.
The stem has a 40mm stack, bolts onto a standard 1 1/8″ steerer, and requires a 85mm wide straight 31.8mm diameter clamping area on your bar. That means it likely won’t fit some aero or dramatically backswept bar designs. But it should work with many, more conventional looking dropbars and flat/low-rise mountain bike bars. It just won’t take advantage of any special textured clamping surfaces like you see on many bars – hint: fiction paste for install.
There is a bar connecting the two struts of the stem for stiffness, so you can’t mount devices between the arms with clamps that attached with a round 31.8mm interface. You can probably fit devices with flexible rubber band-type mounts. But Farr recommends stem cap mounts, and says they will have some compatible GPS/accessory mounts coming soon.
Farr Headspace stem – Pricing & Availability
Farr says the stems are about to go into an “extremely limited” first production run, with the first batch expected to be delivered at the end of January 2021. The Farr Headspace stem is available for pre-order now, direct from Farr for $95 USD
