Nice looking stem.

[QuasiTourer]

I'm after a nice looking stem.
Anyone know of one that doesn't cost the earth.

The Nitto Technomic looks great, but I'm not keen on the idea of spending that much on a stem.


Cheers

[CREPELLO]

But that is the price you will pay for a quill stem these days. Unless you search on ebay for second hand or new old stock. The quill stem is an obselete design that is increasingly only bought by retro bike enthusiasts. Nitto caters for that niche market.

Mind you, if you convert your stem with an Ahead converter you'll still be spending £13 for the converter and £15 for the Ahead stem, so the Nitto is only about a tenner more. Or you could try an ad on the Wanted Board.

[QuasiTourer]

But that is the price you will pay for a quill stem these days.

That's not entirely true. I've found many, although granted most of them look crap.

[CREPELLO]

I haven't seen any new quill stems for a long time, apart from Nitto. You may be referring to new old stock. I wouldn't recommend an obselete stem, because it might be impossible for you to find.

[QuasiTourer]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Procraft-stem-S ... 259&sr=1-1

This doesn't look too bad. Comes in Silver also.

[cyclingthelakes]

I'll bet some nice quill stems can be found in the online auctions. One has to make sure they have their measurements correct. Add the word "vintage" to the search can be of aid too; http://shop.ebay.co.uk/i.html?_nkw=vint ... m270.l1313 Ebay even has some separate "vintage parts" sections.

Vintage "Cinelli" handlebar stems seem to be costly. I will say that.

There are people out there that have inventories of all kinds of apparently thought to be obsolete or obscure parts like shifters, old cranks, etc. etc. Some sellers out there also sell those parts for a lot depending on brand name, etc. like if one were looking for a Stronglight crank versus say some older Sugino cranks which the latter can be found at low prices in my opinion. I'd look at the listings carefully but I recently got some nice Suntour downtube shifters for very very little. Stems might be that way too.

It would be costly but Velo Orange may come out with a handle bar stem http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_C1XrRVl3W8k/T ... totype.jpg in a few months. A stem like that certainly would add even more to a fine vintage ride; again, cost can be an issue. Nice looking though.

[cycleruk]

Have you looked at SJS?
http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/page/find/?n ... 277&page=1

[QuasiTourer]

Thanks for the advice guys.


I was wondering about the stem angle. What's the consensus? or Is it down to trial and error / personal preference?

[CREPELLO]

The other thing to bear in mind is what bars you are using. The stem you've linked to at Amazon is a MTB 25.4mm (bar clamp diameter),whereas the most common size for road drop bars is 25.8mm or 26mm. There seems to be a lot more MTB quill stems than decent road quill stems knocking around. I'm pretty certain that SJS's stock is almost all 25.4mm. To match those stems the only bar I'm aware of is the Nitto Randonneur bar @ c£35.

[QuasiTourer]

Sizing confusion! as usual.

[bikerpauline]

How much have you been quoted for the Nitto?

[Winkeladvokat]

Planet X has lots of nice NOS 3TTT stems on sale.

[QuasiTourer]

How much have you been quoted for the Nitto?

£36