Raising Handlebars- Your solution.

[Halla]

Hello All.

Age is catching up with me and I need to raise the handlebars on 2 of my bikes one with a 1 inch quill stem and one with a 1 1/8th inch ahead stem. They both need to be raised by about 50mm to bring the bars above the saddle height. They are both steel frames Nigel Dean touring bike from early 90's and a Dawes Audax from 2004.

The frame sizes are correct and they are well set up for me, as I have been riding both for many years.

I do regular exercises to help with flexibility, but this does not seem enough to stop the neck pain.

My rides are on road and between 25 and 40 miles, 3 times per week.

I have been riding over 60 years so not new to riding.

I have looked at the easy to purchase solutions to raise the handlebars, most of which do not really look very pretty.

I am not a big fan of fitting a stem raiser to the 1 inch steerer then putting on an ahead stem.

Please can you advise on whether you have found any better solutions than fitting the stem raisers which can be bought from SPA Cycles or St John Street Cycles as well as some LBS.

Nice pictures of your solution may help.

Thanks Andy

[cycle tramp]

Can I ask what handlebars you are using and are you having any issues with them?

[irc]

High rise quill stem?

https://www.hubjub.co.uk/nitto-ntc-225- ... -152-p.asp

If that isn't high enough there are higher options on the Hubjub website though a less traditional shape.

For the 1 1/8th stem. Are you already using a 35 degree stem?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/FOMTOR-Degree- ... B07GCJJ929

[roubaixtuesday]

Hello All.

Age is catching up with me and I need to raise the handlebars on 2 of my bikes one with a 1 inch quill stem and one with a 1 1/8th inch ahead stem. They both need to be raised by about 50mm to bring the bars above the saddle height. They are both steel frames Nigel Dean touring bike from early 90's and a Dawes Audax from 2004.

The frame sizes are correct and they are well set up for me, as I have been riding both for many years.

I do regular exercises to help with flexibility, but this does not seem enough to stop the neck pain.

My rides are on road and between 25 and 40 miles, 3 times per week.

I have been riding over 60 years so not new to riding.

I have looked at the easy to purchase solutions to raise the handlebars, most of which do not really look very pretty.

I am not a big fan of fitting a stem raiser to the 1 inch steerer then putting on an ahead stem.

Please can you advise on whether you have found any better solutions than fitting the stem raisers which can be bought from SPA Cycles or St John Street Cycles as well as some LBS.

Nice pictures of your solution may help.

Thanks Andy

Lots of different stem angles are available for ahead stems. You can also get adjustable ones.

For our tandem I have both a quill to ahead converter *and* a very long stem with a high angle:

[Jdsk]

[slowster]

Function is relatively straightorward: something either fulfils the requirements or it doesn't. Aesthetics is not only personal, I think it changes for many/most of us. Bikes and parts that years ago would have looked odd, now just look normal. Therefore I would be careful not to dismiss something that fulfils the functional requirement perfectly, simply because it currently does not look right to you.

The first thing to do is double check the clamp diameter of your two handlebars. It would be very easy to buy a new stem and discover that it did not fit your old bars. For example, Cinelli bars used to have a 26.4mm clamp diameter which could/should only be used with their own quill stems. Cinelli switched to the more common 26mm standard in the 1990s I think. If you have 26.4mm Cinelli bars, then I think you will need to replace both bars and stem. 25.4mm and 26mm were - and are - the more widely used standard with quill stems, and if you have 25.4mm bars, you can buy a shim to use them with a 26mm stem.

I suggest you look at the various quill stems sold by SJS, who probably have the widest range in the UK - https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/stems-1-222 ... -threaded/. Rivendell Bikes show many of their models with Nitto Tallux/long shaft stems - I suggest you take a look at them and do not simply dismiss them out of hand. If you slept on it and kept looking at those bikes with high stems, you might find that their aesthetics grew on you. Rivendell also have an interesting range and choice of stems, although you might find it difficult to find suppliers in the UK of any models not stocked by SJS. The Nitto DirtDrop (MT-10) in particular looks interesting.

https://www.rivbike.com/collections/available-bikes

https://www.rivbike.com/collections/stems

As for the 1 1/8th inch ahead stem, there are various riser stems and other products, and to some extent your options depend upon how much rise and length your current stem has.

[gregoryoftours]

Nice pictures of your solution may help.

Thanks Andy

Please provide nice pictures of your current setups, it will help us to help more easily.

[531colin]

https://spacycles.co.uk/m9b0s88p2989/BB ... e-Extender

for 1 1/8" threadless those make a good deal of sense.

It looks a bit like a quill stem

IMG_5704 by 531colin, on Flickr

It fits into an 1 1/8" steel steerer

IMG_5706 by 531colin, on Flickr

There are lots of split spacers which make up the difference between 1 1/8" O/D and 1" I/D

IMG_5707 by 531colin, on Flickr

Note.....the spacers are the wrong way up!! The stem clamps onto the 2 wide spacers at the top.

IMG_5708 by 531colin, on Flickr

Have as many spacers as you need below the stem, when assembled in the bike they will be covered by (extra) ordinary headset spacers.

IMG_5709 by 531colin, on Flickr

So, all you see is some extra spacers below the stem.

however, if you have an alloy steerer, you have to use one of those ugly external extenders.

NB.....they come with more split spacers than that! some got lost

Or, its an easy DIY brazing/silver soldering job to add a bit more steerer.....you just need an offcut bit of 1 1/8" steerer, and a couple of inches of 1" steerer to sleeve the joint internally. (Its 1 1/8" O/D and 1/16" wall thickness, therefore 1" I/D.

003 by 531colin, on Flickr

[plancashire]

My wife has one of these: https://byschulz.com/product/speedlifte ... c/?lang=en. Adjust as you age!

[531colin]

HOW MUCH???!!!
(and how ugly is that!)

And tut-tut!! your wife will never age!

[keyboardmonkey]

I have a bike with Reynolds 531 forks and a shim on the steerer to fit an ahead stem. It doesn’t look quite right - the bulbous top headset race makes it look worse - but it’s not so bad that it concerns me.

[rjb]

I have a bike with Reynolds 531 forks and a shim on the steerer to fit an ahead stem. It doesn’t look quite right - the bulbous top headset race makes it look worse - but it’s not so bad that it concerns me.


D0EE0435-D11D-43B7-AC66-14B4FFDB4F41.jpeg

I slipped a plastic tube over my bit of exposed converter to make it look fatter and more aesthetic.

[mattsccm]

Just one small warning. Those ahead type extenders won't always work.I found a fork that had a tapered steerer internally. Just check.

[NickJP]

If you want to retain the look of a classic quill stem on the bike with 1" threaded steerers, look at the Nitto Technomic 225 stems. The quill is 225mm long, and they come in lengths from 50mm to 130mm. I buy most of my NItto parts from Blue Lug in Japan - their shipping is usually quite swift.

https://global.bluelug.com/bicycle/stem/threaded.html

Here's one of the Technomic stems on my touring bike:

[Halla]

Hi all.

Thank you for the replies, I had other things to attend to yesterday.

I have three bikes all with drop handle bars they are all set up to similar dimensions.

My 3rd and best bike is a bespoke Roberts, the only real difference with the Roberts is the there is a 20mm extension brazed onto the head tube, and 10mm spacer under the headset nut giving a more upright position.

I did have a Stronglight alloy head tube extension on the Nigel Dean tourer some years ago, but this proved to be very flimsy and very quickly cracked at the top, which could have caused an accident.

The handlebars on the Dawes Audax maybe a bit wide and I can change them for some narrower bars I already have in stock.

I will consider some of your suggestions and may be able to obtain some bits from a local bike recycling centre.

Today's 35 mile ride on the Dawes was a bit more comfortable on my neck, but I was concentrating on it a bit more than usual.

Thank you again.

Regards Andy.