Upgrade Your Adventure With Full Speed Ahead, Vision – Pro Wing AGX bars, VAS Stem, SL-K post, SC30 Wheelset Review

Along with a road set up, Full Speed Ahead and Vision got us set up with a build for gravel, too. You can read the review of the road-focused products here, and we’ll dive into the FSA Pro Wing AGX, VAS Stem, SL-K seat post, and the Vision SC30 i23 Wheelset now.

For gravel, our test rig is a Ceepo Rindo, built up with Wheeltop’s EDS GeX groupset and a SRAM Force CX1 crank with an absoluteBLACK ring. Our first build for the Rindo was made up of a kit from Redshift, adding a bit of suspension at the stem and seat post. This time we are going more rigid, but not completely. Let’s run through the details.

FSA Pro Wing AGX Handlebars

Launched earlier this year, the Pro Wing AGX is FSA’s new gravel and bike packing bars. The aluminum bars come in 42, 44, and 46cm widths with 100mm drop, 70mm reach, and 25 degrees of flare. There is a slight rise from the stem clamp to the tops, along with a U-shaped loop on the front. The front of the loop tips up at the end, allowing you to use it to mount a bag or even as a short aerobar for riding on the flats. The tops are flattened, giving them a nice rest for your palms when riding on the tops. The 25 degrees of flare adds an additional 50mm of width for more control in the drops.

FSA VAS Stem

The non-series VAS (Vibration Absorbing) Stem has an interesting twist stem design. While primarily targeted at gravel and bike packing, the stem can be used for anyone looking to take a little bit of the sting out of the road. While the body of the stem is pretty standard, it’s how the bars mount to it that is unique. The VAS uses a urethane elastomer to isolate the stem to help reduce vibrations. It comes with three options: the light grey for comfort, the dark grey for sport, and the black for race. Each is a step firmer, allowing riders to tune the feel. We’ll talk more about the setup later on, but the stem is available in 80, 90, and 100mm lengths, and the stem only allows for externally routed cable options.

FSA SL-K Seat Post

The SL-K seat post has been a mainstay in FSA’s lineup for years. The newest version brings weight down even further and increases stiffness. It’s available in zero and 20mm setback options, 350 and 400mm lengths, and diameters of 25.4, 27.3, 30.9, and 31.6mm. The post is made from carbon and features an aluminum head with a two-bolt clamp that works with both 7mm standard round rails and 7x9mm oval rails. It also includes a polymer Di2 battery holder that plugs into the bottom of the post.

Vision SC30 i23 Wheelset

Also relatively new for Vision is the SC30 Disc wheelset. The SC line sits below the Metron line as the budget option with 30 and 48mm deep options. The Metron SL’s can also be used for gravel if you are looking for a deeper wheelset, but the SC have wider internal widths (23mm for the SC30, and 25mm for the SC48). This makes them perfect for gravel and cyclocross, or ultra-wide road tires like Pirelli’s PZero Race TLR in 40mm wide. The SC30 uses a 30mm deep front rim and 35mm deep rear rim, while the SC48 uses a 48mm deep rim front and rear. The rest of the build includes 24 spokes front and rear, and their tried and true V-200 hubs that have upgraded pawls and press-in end caps instead of preload endcaps from the past. This increases the reliability of the hubs and reduces complexity.

The Build

Getting everything set up wasn’t too bad. The Pro Wing AGX allows for internal routing from the hoods to under the tops. The openings weren’t the largest, but large enough to work with getting hydraulic lines through. The transition from the tops to the drops meant there is a nice flat transition to the hoods of the Wheeltop shift levers.

Getting the stem set up was a little more challenging, though. Not really hard, just a little more involved than a normal stem. With how the VAS stem works, there is a clamp that goes around the bar with the hex bolt on the underside. This extends and fits inside of the body of the stem and prevents the bars from rotating. This is needed since the bars are not directly clamped down by the face plate. Next, you pick your urethane elastomer, which wraps around the handlebars and clamp, leaving the clamping bolt exposed at the bottom. From there, you insert the back of the clamp into the stem and add left and right face plates and add the bolts. When I’m first setting them up, I left all five bolts (one on the clamp and four for the face plates) a bit loose so I could adjust the bar to where I wanted it rotated to, and then torqued everything down. One thing to keep in mind, the width of the stem clamp area. It is significantly wider than most stems, so adding a computer mount wasn’t possible with the Pro Wing AGX bars due to the tops starting to flatten out. I looked at mounts that use the stem bolts, but they are a little bit larger and the spacing is wider than normal. In the end, I ended up going with an aerobar clamp around the front of the loop. I tried the sides, but the not completely round shape of the bars didn’t allow for it. It was an okay solution, but a VAS specific mount or using a bag with a mount on the top would be a bit more streamlined.

Setting up the SL-K seat post is a piece of cake. To hold the saddle in place, it has a lower rail cradle the saddle sits on and a front and rear yoke thats clamp down from the top and hold everything in place. Two bolts come up from the bottom to hold everything in place, and allows you to adjust the tilt of the saddle. To add the saddle, I loosened the bolts enough that I could spin the upper yokes 90 degrees and give me space to place the saddle on the lower rail cradle. After rotating the yokes back over the rails, I began tightening the screws to lock the yokes in place on top of the rails. Next, I fine tuned the level of the saddle by tightening and loosening the bolts. If you tighten the front, it will bring the nose down, or bring it up by loosening it. Adjusting the rear bolt does the opposite, but make sure you have sufficient torque on both bolts by time you are done.

The SC30 wheelset was fairly standard in setup. Mount the Centerlock rotors, add the cassette, and mount the tires. When going tubeless, just like the Metron 60SL’s, tires popped into place easily with the Topeak JoeBlow Booster or my portable Ryobi compressor. For the review, I mainly used the Kenda Alluvium Pro gravel tires set up tubeless or with TPU tubes.

On The Road

Overall, I found the setup to be decent for gravel. Coming off the Redshift suspension stem and post, the FSA cockpit gives the bike a very different feel. First off, there are no moving suspension parts, so right from the beginning, you have a more rigid feel. While I enjoyed the Redshift setup, I don’t ride rough gravel that often, so I prefer a more standard setup. The elastomer on the VAS stem is a bit of a happy medium between a suspension post and a fully rigid setup, helping to take the edge off of the vibrations and a little bit of the sting off of harder hits. With no moving parts, it is a pretty set and forget type of a setup, unless you want to tweak the stiffness of the elastomers for different rides.

The Pro Wing AGX was also a nice surprise for me. The 42cm was a little wider than I typically like, even for gravel, but the shape, drop, and flare all fit nicely. In a perfect world, a 36cm would be just what I’m looking for, with 36cm at the hoods and 41 at the drops. The flatish tops felt great in my hands, and worked well as a forearm rest when I wanted to use the loop as an aerobar. It’s not something that I could stay in for long stretches, but it was a nice change when the road was flat and fast, and it helped me set a for PR’s on Strava segments, even on a gravel bike.

One drawback to again highlight with this conbination is a lack of a dedicated computer mount. As mentioned before, the VAS stem is pretty wide, and when paired with the Pro Wing AGX bars, I wasn’t able to mount a computer next to the stem. Mounting the TT mount at the tip of the loop was okay, but a bit ackward. A dedicated mount using the stem bolts I feel is a missed opportunity.

The SL-K post felt like an old favorite. I’ve been riding them on road, gravel, and cyclocross for at least a decade, and they just work. They are stiff and I’ve never had one slip. For me, the other main highlight is the set up. The tray and yokes design has always held my saddles in place with out issue, whether they were carbon or metal rails. It does make me a bit sad seeing more and more bikes coming with proprietary seat posts, but the SL-K will still be there, and I still have plenty of bikes running them.

Finally, the SC30 wheelset is a great option for all-arounders. It’s shallow depth makes it very stable in cross winds and at 1,395g, it’s still relatively light. For gravel wheelsets, it’s always a little bit of a challenge to gauge comfort of specific wheels due to the higher volume tires and low pressures you typically run. What I can say is that they were stiff when standing for climbs, and cornered well. They might not be part of the higher-end Metron line, you are still getting a durable, handbuilt wheel that will be easy to live with if parts ever need replaced. For gravel, this is important since gravel tends to be more remote, self-supported, and harder on your equipment than road riding. So durability tends to be higher priority in this category.

Conclusion

One of the cool things about gravel is that everyone has a different take on it. You have the racers, the all-roaders, the explorers, the roadies dipping their toe in, bike packers, and everyone inbetween. Each rider has their own set up and style, allowing you to really customize your build to be exactly what you want/need. For some, they want ultimate utility. For some, it’s comfort, while others are looking for all out speed and performance. In many cases, it’s more about finding the right balance and limiting large losses over marginal gains. That’s where the Pro Wing AGX, VAS Stem, SL-K post, and SC30 i23 wheelset comes in. The Pro Wing AGX and VAS stem help to create a smoother front end with multiple hand positions and options to store a bag right in front of you. The SL-K post and SC30 i23 wheelset offers a bit of durability and lightness that helps to offset some of the additional weight of the VAS stem and the aluminum construction of the Pro Wing AGX. All four of these components would be at home on any gravel bike, except for maybe the most performance focused riders.

All of these items won’t break the bank either. The SC30 i23 wheelset comes in at $1,101 with optins for XDR or Shimano 11/12 speed freehubs. The VAS stem is $128 with the Pro Wing AGX coming in at $165. Add in the SL-K seat post at $119, you can upgrade your ride for just over $1,500 to add more durability, comfort, and performance to your gravel bike. You can also mix and match and create your perfect gravel ride.

www.fullspeedahead.com www.visiontechusa.com