what was that? is that all there is? who is this? this is it.

all these photos are Rivendell

I have some strong feelings for stems. Opinions. Dos and Don’ts. The stem deserves some thought. Intention. It’s not a that’ll-do. It’s not a good-enough. It’s not an accident. It’s not a threadless-conversion. It’s not adjustable.

it is or it is not.  

it’s right or it’s wrong.

it’s on or it’s off.

it’s yes or it’s no.

it’s hot or it’s cold.

Refurbishing hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of bikes at BikeWorks reinforced my feelings for stems. A great bike build includes a great stem. A shitty stem can take a lot away from a bike’s vitality, its chi. 

I enjoy looking at great photos of great stems.

The photos below however, bother me. 

Sometimes the bike is great, but the stem is all wrong. 

Visualize a beautiful Italian steel road bike with a threadless stem converter and a clunky alloy 31.8 stem. Fuckin A. Horrible. 

Visualize a Fat Chance mountain bike with an adjustable stem maxed out to its highest setting. Get that thing away from me. 

Visualize a keirin track bike all NJS except the carbon fiber Nashbar stem. Shit. 

A great stem completes the package, tops it off.

While a poor stem choice is like the clock on your VCR blinking 12:00  you can ignore it and probably get used to it. But it’s annoying. Nagging like a pebble in my shoe. 

Is that the best you can do?

12:00  12:00  12:00 12:00 12:00 

Nitto knows what I mean. 

Nitto knows stems. 

3 Comments

your VCR

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blinking_twelve_problem

I've never understood the R&E obsession with the ludicrous amount of steerer tube sticking out above the headtube. I've seen multiple examples of their bikes just like the one you picture here, with the "tall boy" worth FSA spacers. It's like nails on a bloody chalkboard to me.

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