Road Cycling - Quill Stems

Some fellow riders felt compelled to point out to me how odd it was that my new bike had a quill stem. That got me to wondering what the advantage is to a threadless stem (as most bikes seem to have them). Should I be thinking of upgrading to a threadless stem in the future, or is it not worth the expense?

Your buds must be morons or on crack.Bikes are still being made with threaded HS. Functionally there is no advantage. If you want to spend lots of money you can save a good bit of weight with an all CF fork,and real light weight stem.Other than the weight saving potential there is no point to it.To 'upgrade' involves a new fork,HA and stem.

Well, I'm happy to report that they were not buds, just people I had met at a bike tour. If lighter weight is the only advantage, then I'll leave it be until I decide to go for a carbon fork. Thanks for the info.

and even then u can get the adapter

The only real-world advantage is for self-sufficient tourists who may need to adjust a headset on-tour. You only need 2 allen keys, not 2 headset wrenches, saving a whole of of weight in your toolkit.

threadless is ugly too.. I love the curves on a nice quill stem. lol

Then there's the issue of adjusting handlebar height. Quill stem? 6mm allen key, generally a couple inches of adjustment available. Threadless? How many bicycles come with a 2-inch stack of spacers? :( Of course there are the flip-flop threadless stems to give 6-degree boost/drop, for instance. Overall, I'll live with the extra bit of weight and opt for the more classic look of a quill stem, having owned both.

Threadless are stronger, lighter (up to 1/2 pound lighter), more simple and usually threadless stems have removable faceplates for easy bar removal. Threaded stems usually have a single bolt grip so you have to disassemble and feed the bar out-huge hassle.

The advantages are simplicity, strength and weight. Nothing wrong with threaded either but it's no longer the standard.

One big advantage to quill stems is IF the stem breaks. The quill stems still have the binder bolt that holds the broken mess to the bike so you have at least some chance of saving your self by braking and stearing.

With threadless stems, if it breaks, you break.

Might sound crazy, but I've broken stems and anybody else who has knows what I am talking about.

buy a threadless stem and it will never break:D

Originally posted by RacerX
buy a threadless stem and it will never break:D

Everything breaks sooner or later.

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