A lot of you by now have become familiar with DHDirect, a small Australian company that imports bike products. Most notable of these are the yum-cha-do-the-job-at-a-fraction-of-the-price products (not that Turner and Mojo aren’t notable). These products are mass produced in some Asian factory (I assume), and are re-branded by heaps of different companies. In short, DHDirect decided to go with their own brand, and that brand is BiLT.

To date BiLT components include normal and oversize riser bars, various stems and a couple types of pedals. I’ve had the entire set of these products here for a couple months now so I can confidently pass judgment.

Normal and Oversize Bars (Redneck & Fatbutt)

I’ve found both sets of bars to be really good. They aren’t overly heavy, strong enough to handle a typical downhillers abuse and best of all cheap. Bars usually come down the personal preference. Protaper/Easton bars have very little upsweep (bars pointing up at the ends), and Azonic type bars typically have quite allot of up sweep. Some riders like the up sweep, and some don’t. The BiLT bars have an upsweep between those of the Protapers/Easton and Azonic. I have run both types in the past and consider the BiLT bars to be reasonably comfortable coming from either bar. Both bars come in 1.5 inch rise and are 28 inches (710mm) wide. The only dfference between the two is the Fatboy’s are oversize (31.8mm) and Rednecks are the standard 25.4mm.

Fatbutt & Redneck Bars

Stems Stems Stems

BiLT currently make three stems; 2 being variations of the 40mm/0 degree rise Busta (oversize and normal), the 50mm/0 degree rise Hellfire (oversize), and the 50mm/10 degree rise Kombi. Stems, like bars are a preference thing. BiLT have done well to provide a few variations around the 40-50mm market.

Each of the stems are well built (no pun intended), when you first pick up one of these things you think two things; holy crap this thing is pretty heavy, and secondly, these will definitely not break. For most riders out there this is absolutely fine. The extra weight is easily offset by the fact that they are so cheap, and you’ll never have to replace them.

My pick of the bunch would be the Hellfire as I tend to like 0 degree rise/50 mm stems. However, on my downhill bike I’m using a drop-crown so I’ve opted for the Kombi stem upside down to lower the bars a touch.

Can’t say I’m a real fan of the Busta. In my eyes its too heavy, huge and over BiLT. But hey, that’s my weight weenie side talking, and I think 40mm stems are too short (my preference). I’m sure allot of people will have different opinions to myself.

Hellfire | Busta | Kombi

Busta doin' its thing..

Pedals

Now we’re talking, the exciting bit. Do we still have to fork out huge amounts to buy Azonic A-Frames and Easton Cullys? Not any more!!

BiLT have two pedals; the Flatty and Zed.

Zed’s are half the price of the Flatty’s and are extremely good value for money. They feature replaceable pins, a nice shape and size and did I mention they were cheap? $49 to be exact. Perfect for street style riding where you need grip, but need to be able to get your feet off the pedals every now and then. They don’t have sealed bearing, but for the price who cares.

The Flatty’s are BiLT’s top of the line pedal. They share quite allot of similarities with the Cully’s and A-Frames (you’d almost say they’re a cross breed). One of the most important features is the concave top of the pedal. The best performing and most expensive flat pedals have a concave shape! This forces your shoe to make better use of the pins’ grip. The Flattys also feature sealed bearings, a Cro-Moly shaft and replaceable pins. In my view they perform every bit as good as the Cully and A-Frames. At $99 they’re still not overly cheap, but will save you a reasonable amount of dough over the alternatives.

Zed & Flatty pedals

Overall

In all I’m excited about the BiLT gear (and my name is not Big Kev). Hopefully the BiLT brand will diversify and expand to provide us with a plethora of cheap, well made components for our valued steeds. I don’t care where the stuff is made, I don’t care what brand it is, I want something that is going to work, and work well.

BiLT provides.

On a side note, something I had to mention is the fact that you can buy these components in bundles. For example; you can buy the Busta stem, Redneck bars and Zed pedals for $109!! That is about as good a deal as you'll get anywhere. You're lucky these days to find a good set of bars for that much let alone bars/stem/pedals combo.

Score: 8.5/10 *Extreme value

Discuss this thread here.