Culprit Bicycles are crowdfunding on Indiegogo for a new aero stem that hides Di2, eTap and EPS junction boxes, plus tidies up the cables for any type of groupset to save you 17 seconds over a 20 minute time trial according to the brand themselves.
Well known already for their bikes, Culprit have made the move towards accessories instead, and alongside the new stem they're also crowdfunding for adjustable clip-on aerobars and a saddle bag with tool included. The Aerodynamic Stem is suitable for 'most road and tri bikes', and is available in lengths of 90 through to 120mm. The difference here is that the cables aren't locked into place, and the three-piece design of the stem means cables can be accessed easily for additional set-up and adjustment. Culprit claim it's the only stem that can fully hide a Sram Blipbox, and they're also working on finalising an integrated out-front Garmin mount for it too (shown above).
It also cleans up mechanical cables with ease
As we're now seeing some of the latest wave of aero road bikes with completely clean front ends, including the top-of-the-range BMC Teammachine and the updated Giant Propel, it's potentially a good solution for those who want similar aero savings on their current bikes without the same level of integration.
Culprit's other options on their Indiegogo page are a set of easily adjustable clip-on aerobars for a $90 backing (35% off the eventual RRP) and a saddle bag including tools for a $65 backing (also 35% off the RRP), with the stem estimated to ship out in April 2018. We have one of the saddle bags in for test and will be reviewing shortly - check out Culprit's Indiegogo crowdfunding page for more details.
After cobbling together a few hundred quid during his student days off the back of a hard winter selling hats (long story), Jack bought his first road bike at the age of 20 and has been hooked ever since. He joined road.cc in 2017 having previously being Staff Writer at 220 Triathlon magazine, and reports on all things tech as well as editing road.cc's live blog. He is also the news editor of our electric-powered sister site eBikeTips. Jack's preferred events are time trials, sportives, triathlons and pogo sticking (the latter being another long story), and on Sunday afternoons he can often be found on an M5 service station indulging in his favourite post-race meal of 20 chicken nuggets, a sausage roll, caramel shortbread and a large strawberry milkshake.