Bicycle Mechanics - Why haven't anyone tried double stems?

Well, just think about it, people do all kinds of strange things to their bikes, from the pointless and possibly dangerous, to the moderately useful and mildly entertaining, to some rare examples of sheer biking genius.
So why haven't we seen anyone run double stems and bars?
Want a nice streamlined tuck available on your MTB? chuck in another stem, a set of drop bars and you're good to go.
Want a comfy upright climbing position and some serious brakes on your tourer? Another stem and a flat bar and you're suddenly fully compatible with everything the MTB world has to offer.

The guy who does the Shift mate also does some brake splitters and things like that I believe, so some functions would be possible to duplicate on both bars.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that this has to be a great idea. But it's so easily available, and it'd provide some really handy workarounds to troubles encountered while trying to set a bike up for use outside its intended envelope that I find it strange that I haven't seen it tried yet.

Sheldon Brown did it. :)

i sloganized this thread...........

«There's a bit of this thread in all of us.»

Sheldon's
http://sheldonbrown.org/thorn/images/thorn.jpg (http://sheldonbrown.org/thorn/index.html)

(click on the pic for the full story)

Sheldon Brown did it. :)

That is worthy of being quoted.

Want a comfy upright climbing position and some serious brakes on your tourer? Another stem and a flat bar and you're suddenly fully compatible with everything the MTB world has to offer.


If you want to get REALLY wacky, use regular road brakes to your brifters and get a set of disc brakes mounted and run the cables to your flat bar brakes. Four brakes that way, and you can use whichever seems most appropriate for the situation.

"Objection, your Honour, I did not have too many drinks before riding this bike..."

Sheldon Brown did it. :)

Well, it figures!

I was thinking of something a tad cruder though, two stems on the same steerer tube, fast and ugly.

SB took the slick route, with extenders, quill stems and whatnot. More elegant, but sort of sidetracking the immediate build-with-what-you've-got-approach that I was envisioning.

I was thinking of something a tad cruder though, two stems on the same steerer tube, fast and ugly.



It's actually not crude, but a clean set up. Tour bikes sometimes run 2 threadless stems, one on top of each other. The bottom stem is used to mount a handlebar bag, not a second handlebar.

Well, it figures!

I was thinking of something a tad cruder though, two stems on the same steerer tube, fast and ugly.

SB took the slick route, with extenders, quill stems and whatnot. More elegant, but sort of sidetracking the immediate build-with-what-you've-got-approach that I was envisioning.
Hmmm, i was actually thinking to the Karate Monkey he built:

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/harris/surly-rohloff/images/2-bars.jpg

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/harris/surly-rohloff/index.html

90% of dentist highly encourage double stems. Studies show this drastically improves the riders chance of needing some oral surgery after hitting a pothole while in the drops.:D:D

ya, great, was sheldon a hard drinker? anyway----- the only double stem bike I ever
fell in love with was a metallic pink Colnago time trial bike from the 80's-- with 2 ttt stems
arising from the fork crown--- 1 on either side holding a met pink ttt pursuit bar---
absolutely beautiful and perf functional--- worthy of wine and cheese..............

It's actually not crude, but a clean set up. Tour bikes sometimes run 2 threadless stems, one on top of each other. The bottom stem is used to mount a handlebar bag, not a second handlebar.


http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?o=3Tzut&doc_id=1834&v=1D

I miss Sheldon.

I miss Sheldon.
Do you still miss Cosmic Cantina, too?
btw, I miss sheldon too.

I would like to have met him...........

I miss Sheldon.

Me Too!
:(

Do you still miss Cosmic Cantina, too?

You have no idea ...

On a slightly more standard note, Bruce Gordon builds a bike called "Rock and Road". He can provide two bar set-ups, drop bars with barend shifters and flat bars with appropriate brake/shift levers. You interchange them depending on the riding you plan. He provides cable splitters to make the exchange easy. You can't use both bars at the same time.

That's almost as ugly as the "extension" stem I cobbled together for my homemade recumbent.