BMC has announced the release of its new ICS MTT stem, which it says offers up to 20mm of tunable suspension.
The Swiss brand has been experimenting with low-key suspension on its gravel bikes over the past few years, with the original BMC URS featuring an elastomer in the seatstays and the BMC URS LT adding 20mm of travel in the fork.
Now BMC has added a new suspension option up-front with the ICS MTT stem. The stem combines the internally routed design from BMC’s existing ‘integrated cockpit system’ (ICS) and adds an elastomer setup designed in collaboration with Redshift, the brand behind the Shockstop suspension stem.
BMC claims the new ICS MTT is almost indistinguishable from the standard ICS stem, which was designed to combine cable integration with easy routing and stack height adjustability.
How does it work?
At the core of the design are two elastomers that give the ICS MTT its suspension by pivoting on the oversized axle at the base of the stem’s extension.
BMC claims the torsional stiffness is equal to a standard stem and that you’ll only feel the effects of the suspension when it comes to smoothing out rougher surfaces. The stem comes with five elastomer rigidities that can be mixed and matched to fine-tune the feel. In total, there’s up to 20mm of tunable suspension.
BMC will offer the ICS MTT in five stem lengths (72/80/90/100/110mm), all with a zero-degree angle. It weighs in at 330g for the 80mm version and is made from the same alloy as the top-of-the-range ICS2 stem.
BMC says the ICS MTT can be used with any bike with a round steerer tube and it's also compatible with all BMC bikes that use the existing ICS setup.
The brand will now offer the MTT suspension stem on all new URS One gravel bikes. It will also roll out on the latest Roadmachine X and Alpenchallenge AMP models.
The ICS MTT stem will be available online and through BMC retailers for €249 / $249. Further international pricing was not available at the time of writing.
