Race Face Turbine R Stem Review

Newly updated from Race Face is the Turbine R 35mm stem. Taking the popular Turbine 35mm stem and giving it a full revamp, the Turbine R stem has the strength and many features everybody loved from Turbine 35mm but now comes in more sizes and with features than before!

With 5 sizes to choose from, the Turbine R stem should have options for every rider and style in the all mountain/trail category. The new size range includes 32mm, 40mm, 50mm, 60mm, and 70mm. Riders adapting to the ever popular longer top tube and shorter stem combo seem to be stoked with the new 32mm and 40mm offerings. A zero-degree rise is a new change to the previous +/- 6 degree, an alteration that I myself was glad to see as I prefer to use headset spacers and bar rise over stem rise to achieve the stack height that I like. With an impressive weight to strength ratio, the 50mm stem is only 138g, which is insanely light for how strongly and stiffly this stem rides.

Set up is made easy thanks to the large window on the face plate, allowing you to get a good line up of the logo or adjustment scale for a proper centered bar and correct sweep. Thanks to the TopLock design, tightening the face plate is easier than ever. To start, place the bar in the proper position, then torque the top two bolts to 5nm. Once the top is torqued you proceed to torque the bottom two bolts to the same 5nm. Then you are ready to hit the trails!

On the trail, stem performs better than expected. It is stiff with great handling provided by the 0 degree angle. Both the 32mm and 50mm we have on our personal bikes have been awesome for the last two months of riding. No slipping, creaking or breaking. The Turbine R stem lives up to the Race Face reputation of quality. You would think it's just like any other stem, but trust us when we say it’s one of the last things you want to go wrong on the trail. Slipped bars are no fun, and breaking, creaking or cracked faceplates are the worst. The Turbine R stem looks to be far from suffering any of these disasters anytime soon…Proving that the Turbine R stem will be a great upgrade to any bike you have!