Retro Bob said...
Quoted message said:OK... having been out of the bicycle arena for about 25-30 years, I've
recently returned. I'm having trouble getting my hands around some
changes, but I'm getting there. The one that has me the most confused
is the new style stems vs. the quill design. What are the advantages
to the new design ? I can;t see an overall weight advantage, it's
not simpler, it's definitely not more elegant... ?Thanks,
PS. Anyone know why there are so many stems (new style) for sale on
Ebay ? A quick check show s 850+ for sale, out pacing even (all) tire
listings by 2:1.
I disagree. It has weight advantages, it's simpler and much more
elegant, especially for the end user. Retro-grouches may grumble about
it, but I've had too much (bad) experience with quill stems back in the
day. While it was true that small adjustments to height could be made,
in practice it wasn't always easy. Even if the stem and steerer weren't
welded together by corrosion, the adjustment range wasn't really that
great and raising it meant exposing a scarred, corroded part of the
stem. I never found it particularly easy to keep everything at the
position I wanted while tightening the bolt, and in the end the quill
stem isn't nearly as secure as a threadless system. I didn't have the
quality of bikes then that I do now, but it was common for the quill to
go out of kilter, especially after a small accident. Compared to a
threadless stem, quill stems are held together by a wing and a prayer.
You get one bolt and a tenuous, zero area friction interface between the
stem and steerer.
Threadless is obviously much lighter, especially with an all carbon
steerer and all carbon forks are very cool. To anyone who says they
aren't strong enough, my firsthand experience shows that they can be
remarkably strong and resilient. The primary impact in my car-bike
accident was an all carbon fork. It was hit so hard that the stem was
almost squeezed off the steerer, but after taking it apart, nobody can
find a thing wrong with it. I'm quite convinced that no metal bladed
fork would be useable after that accident. Of course it is damaged goods
and no longer trustworthy for 50mph descents, but I fixed the bike up
for use as a classy townie and commuter and will use it until signs of
trouble develop, if ever.
Threadless stems are simpler and less expensive. Most people don't
discard stems because of the inability to get the correct stack height,
but because they want a different length or angle, and these properties
are more even more immutable with a quill stem. A neat property of
threadless stems is the ability to flip it over to get a very different
angle. Most even have mirrored logos to make it look good.
If you buy your own fork with an uncut steerer and leave on some extra
length, your range of stack height adjustment can in fact be much
greater than what you get with a quill stem, because you can stack
spacers on top of the stem as well as under it. But I don't find myself
wanting to adjust stem height very often. Consider how fussy we are, and
should be, about fit. Once I have a bike dialed in for me and the
intended purpose of the bike, I may not make any major changes for a
long time.
Threadless is much simpler and much more elegant. Headset preload should
be checked as often as you can remember it, and if it isn't what it
should be, the threadless system makes it a 5 minute DIY job to get it
right. The need for special tools and skills unique to bike mechanics is
quickly disappearing, and threadless is part of that change.