Premise of Review:
This article is a comparison between slik stik varieties as well as contrasted against your standard aluminium shaft.

Product:

Slik Stik's are a category of stems producted by unicorn. Slik stiks are different from regular shafts in that the flight side loads.

Presently there are four main varieties of slik stik.

All Plastic Stem
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Aluminum Base with permanetely affixed plastic top
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Ti Coated metal base with replaceable tops for Sigma and Phase 5
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Magnesium base with replaceable tops for Sigma Pro
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Both the standard and Ti Coated metal bases are available with or with out a tightening hole depending on the sub variety.

Basic Advantages:
The basic advantage to slik stiks are that they are far more durable than regular nylon or alum stems and that the flights almost NEVER pop out. On top of that the design essentially includes built in flight protectors that prevent robin hoods and some deflection. They are also extremely flexible and bend out of the way of incoming darts more often than not. They also never snap off completely which saves the effort of having to go to the pain of pulling broken shafts out. The replacable tops are also much cheaper than buying shafts in masse' and last longer. Also far easier to load flights by a mile.

Basic Disadvantages:
They are on compatible with alot of flight shapes and sizes. This includes slims, kites, oversized standards, triads and mini flights like dimplex offers. Also you I've had some difficulty finding other name brand standards and pears that fit right. All Unicorn flights seem to fit fine though. Depending on the color and year you buy of replacable tops there is some variation in the size of the top leading to some fitting loose. I found this paticular problem when using black over white. The blacks just dont want to hold my flights snug. Another disadvantage is the initial upfront cost if you buy a metal base system with replacable tops.

Advanced Advantages:
Can aim like phil taylor and sight off the butt of the stem. If you go with the magnesium base your shafts are instantly lighter than most and it may give you a more forward balance point. of vice versa if you go with the solid steel base which sees to be heavier than standard alum stems

Advanced Disadvantages:
If your darts sit in unusual angles for extended periods of time are are stored funny, the tops will warp especially if its warm out. Unicorn may retire them when lowe and taylor are out of the picture if no one new uses them.

Wear:
I personally use both the mag and ti coated bases often and I've noticed that the mag holds up much much better appearance wise. In the rare instance of plowing a dart completely through the plastic top, the TI base may chip where as the mag top seems much softer. Actually done the prior not pretty. All in all wears far better than any traditional shaft ive bought. Save damage of flights

Cost:
10-20 dollar range depending on what you get, unless you go for the all plastic which is much cheaper in the short term.

Balance point:
Another comparison between ti and mag, several grip rings difference, and in this example it is the ti coated with a hole, so imagine the dif!

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Overall:
Best shaft system on the market by a mile

Thanks Vallyr

Trying to find the weight of these stems lead me to this forum.

Great review bud! DN reviewers badge is on its way

Nice review vallyr. I like the slik stiks as well. I have used kites and slims in them and had no problems. The phase5 darts came with slim flights. The kites I've used were pentathlon and they fit great. I only use the slik stiks on the darts they came with -sigmas and phase 5. I agree they are a nice system -I just prefer my L-style set up

Nice and detailed review Vallyr good job, have a +1

Never been a big fan of the Slik Stiks myself, but I may gave them another try sometime before totally dismissing them.

Does the bottom part of it give strength because my slikstiks are really bendy? I haven't got the aliminium bit

Nice review Vallyr! I have been using the Phase 5 shafts for about 6 months and I am very satisfied with them. Last night I broke one of the replaceable tops, and that is the first one I've had to replace in 6 months(The dart landed back end first on an odd bounce out causing the flight holder to break). The length of these is longer than a short nylon and shorter than a medium, and I did have trouble with these on a longer barreled dart, but they are great on my Sigmas. Anyway, great review brother. +1 from me.

Nice review mate take a plus 1 from me too.

Good review.
I ordered some a few weeks ago to try, but not received them yet.
Thought the new aluminum base ones, have the threaded plastic top in them now?
As I bought some aluminum base ones and some spare threaded tops.

I am supprised they are not more popular with Phil Taylor using them. It is strange that no other current Unicorn sponsored player uses them!
Cant wait to try them, but it looks like people either love or hate them.

as far as I know the aluminium ones are not threaded but are perma attatched so they are tossable when the plastic breaks, unless they released a new one.

nice review, buddy. been using slik stiks stems since the beginning of my dart life.
Note: Harrows flights can fit to the slikstiks.

yeah dunno which brands dont, because I used to get alot of grab bag flights and alot of the slims were alot longer same with kites and stuff.

I know vortex ones fit really well though too

Just got some new Aluminum Base slik stiks.
The new ones are threaded on the top now, so you can just replace the plastic tops.
Had a throw with them on my darts and really like them.
Like the way how the plastic gives when another dart hits them.
Really good if your darts land horizontal in the board, like Dean Winstanley and Phil Taylor.

ooh cool bet the alum ones are prob cheaper too

Can you link me to the alum ones with replacable tops, still cant find them

A180 have them

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Also I got mine from pure dart

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1.41 ex vat and 1.69 in vat.

Is it really worth getting the phase 5, sigma pro or magnesium slik stiks if they are 5 times more expensive?

the TI ones are just coated steel(heavy) so prob not. However, the Mag ones are super super light.

Wasn't sure when I saw that on pure since it didnt say replaceable tops. I like that the alum ones come in short too. Going to buy some of those

had some of the nylon ones.

played in the pub with a tiled floor.

bounceout, slikstik snaps, never used since

Been using phase5s for bout 3 years now , hard to get used to in the beginning due to the flat trajectory and darts landing above the top treble number and trying to convince myself to switch for cover, i was easily convinced after having so many darts on the floor, because the dart on its way to the board would deflect and loose its momentum, point being i love them but they do take getting used to...

Good review Vallyr.....

Been using phase 5 stems for as long as they have been around and i swear by them and not sure i would use anything else. Took a bit of getting used to at the beginning but since then im more than happy with them although they are expensive.

Had no problems with them and replacing the plastic tops is great, they last for many years the base part that is, ive used them for so long im not sure if my new darts would go better with a different set up as im currently not using my phase 5 rosso darts so i could well experiment but im a massive fan.

Maybe I should have giving them longer, I never liked them at first so never kept my set for long. But maybe it was more the weight?

Its a personal thing needed to be done in the off season...

i moved across to them when i got my phase 5 and it took a while before i got full used to them and now its second nature no matter what dart i throw its phase 5 titanium stem and i would say try again but give it a week or so and you WILL be hooked.

worth another go I think.

One thing i would stress is that you will need to try as many different flight styles and shapes as the results differ massively so give everything a try and after a few days you will find something that works best and after a few more days im confident you will never go back.

Cheers for the info!

As a matter of interest.
Does anybody put O-rings on the metal part of the slik stik, that screws into the dart barrel?
Or do you find that the slik stik doesn't come loose as often as standard aluminum shafts?

I use o-rings - they always came loose for me without them

I also use o rings

0 rings ...Always on all shafts regardless