Azonic Controls – First Look
Azonic World Force downhill bars and Hollow Point direct mount stem – First Look
Azonic are a name some of the younger riders might not be so familiar with but those of us born in the 80s (or even earlier!) will remember desperately wanting to get your hands on an unobtainable Azonic Double Wall bar and Shorty stem but having to make do with the World Force (which used to be the budget brand, not so much now) version instead, or having that one mate who’s parents had bought him a coveted DS1 frame.
They’ve been relatively out of the picture when it comes to quality mountain bike components for a while but due to the heritage of the brand we were quite excited to see they have a new line up of components including the World Force downhill bars and Hollow Point direct mount stem.
The bars come in at 760mm, so they aren’t quite as wide as some on the market but certainly wide enough for most riders and the stem has adjustable reach between 47 and 52mm, which is well within the ‘normal’ parameters for a downhill stem. Both are 31.8 mm and come in a fetching anodized black with the bars also coming in white, blue, silver and red finishes.
Unpacking the bars they look and feel like a quality part from the start, the sweep is a little different to the Burgtecs I’m used to, which required a bit of fiddling to get the right angle although once they were set they felt right. A nice touch, although I removed them to fit my own X-Lite units was the included plastic bar bungs, which is something more manufacturers could do with fitting as standard.
Similarly the stem felt like a quality component from the box, perhaps not the lightest on the market but certainly not heavy and solid enough to keep your bars where they should be on the front of your bike! I fitted this on the shorter setting and it immediately felt about right, no quirky rise or other characteristics here.
These components will be fitted to my bike for some long term testing so keep your eyes out for a full review coming soon once they had some use and abuse.
Words – George May
Images -Rob Lewis