Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - Experience with Moots "Open Road" ti stem?

Posted this earlier in the road forum, but got no help. Also STFA and found jack.

Anyone have personal experience with the Moots "Open Road" titanium stem? $300 for a stem is crazy, so before I go insane I just want to get as much info about ride and build quality as I can find...

Thanks,
Steven

ride and build quality!?

it's ti and welded at moots. it will be perfect.

But for $300 it should pedal for you. Maybe I'm cheap?

Ride quality of a stem? I would hope for $300 that it would do something pretty fricking amazing for ride quality, but I can't imagine what that would be. The main thing going for it is gonna be good looks ( I assume) rather than tangible performance benefits. Nothing wrong with that though.

By the way I just got a complete track bike with chromed rear end and forks, vintage dura ace cranks and BB and non machined campy rims laced and tied to miche hubs for $300 (£200). There may be better things than a stem that you could spend the money on.

Would you care to tell me how you managed that Momentum? I'm in the UK, and in the market for a track bike. Maybe I should've kept the EG Bates I snapped up at £220 from Ebay, but I couldn't resist flipping it, and at £500 I got for it, I guess I was right........

It was my lucky day on ebay. The listing wasn't good (one photo of the whole bike and no info about parts), it was collection only and with a starting bid of £200. Made out enough from the photo to think it might be a deal and when I went to collect the bike I realised that I made the right decision.

I think keeping an eye on ebay is worthwhile and complete bikes tend to be a better deal than parts. Recently I found out too late about a 753 Raleigh team track in my size with full record pista group that had a BIN of £250. Still wish I had seen that earlier...

edit: forgot to say that you got a sweet deal on that Bates.

Hell yes I did, and it was my size, but now it's gone. Back to looking for the next one......

It's good to know there are more bargains out there than I find - gives me confidence to keep looking. What kind of frame was it?

I dunno, man... Ti has a very solidly established reputation for being flexy. I'm not sure I'd want a flexy stem for $300. I mean, stems get a lotta torque when you stand, so it's not the part I'd make flexy to dampen the road bumps. Is it a large-diameter threadless? Still sounds wild to me.

Plus Ti parts seem to show up on ebay for preposterously low prices. I remember barends in the $20 range. Of course they are not Moots, but good enough for holding your handlebar and looking good in the process... Like this one (http://cgi.ebay.com/Litespeed-Real-Design-Titanium-Stem-roadbike_W0QQitemZ270002497678QQihZ017QQcategoryZ42333QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem). Of course, it may be crap, and it's still not exactly dirt cheap.
If you have $300 burning a massive hole in your pocket, then why not, I guess. There are worse things to spend it on.

Meh. In my experience, all a stem has to do is hold the bars in place and not look like crap. Most $10 stems can do that. For $300, I'd rather get a new frame. ;)

I have no experience with the moots stem, but I will attest to the quality of the Cinelli Grammo. Welded TI, hight quality, light and pretty stiff as well. I'm running it with profile design bullhorns, and notice more flex on my quill stem than on this.

http://www.itsbicycletime.it/images/foto/attacco-grammo.jpg

Meh. In my experience, all a stem has to do is hold the bars in place and not look like crap. Most $10 stems can do that. For $300, I'd rather get a new frame. ;)

right, but in the mind of a profesional racer (or any lowly human that can afford a Moots-level bike) you think different about your parts:
Your stem should

hold the bars in place
be correctly positioned to the mm
not look like crap
never fail (catastrophic stem failure could easily end your career)
be as light as possible to the fraction of a gram
be expensive - you're getting it near free because of your sponsorship deal(s). Moots wants you to be seen with a $300 stem so that joe biker thinks he needs one too and actually goes and pays top dollar for it.


so, i bet it's a rad stem. and I bet enough people will either get them for free or buy them full cost. Maybe if I was at that level of racing I'd consider it too.

Points 1,2, and 4 are all covered under the "Hold the bars in place" requirement. It should be the correct place, and it should ALWAYS hold them in that place. To do otherwise is to fail at holding the bars in place.

Hi All-

Currently doing research on the Moots Open Road (http://www.moots.com/ticomp-openroad.php) stem and wanted to see if there were any new opinions or user feedback out there. I'm primarily comparing it against a Deda Arimo stem. Either the Moots or the Deda would be paired with quality Deda Campione carbon fiber handlebars. My frame will likely be titanium or carbon fiber, so I think this stem has lots of potential.


http://www.moots.com/images/openroadstem.jpg

The other contenders for my future bike include a Ritchey WCS 4Axis or possibly Ritchey WCS Carbon 4Axis. Either of those Ritchey stems would be combined with a Ritchey WCS Carbon Classic handlebar. I just don't know if Ritchey can really "match-up" in terms of quality to Moots and/or Deda.

~ Blue Jays ~

I would ask this question in the road forum as people there will probably have more experience with high-end, road orientated threadless parts. A lot of people here run threaded and those who run threadless probably aren't at such a high zoot level or are looking for stiffness (for the track) as their main aim.