jev

hey: i'm trying to fix up a ~80s Nishiki Olympic road bike that i bought at a yard sale. the stem is a problem. it's a standard "quill"-style, wedge-inside-the-fork-steerer-tube thing. i'd like to replace it with a stem with a more acute angle. thing is, the inside-diameter of the fork steerer tube is 2cm -- not 1 inch, not 1 & 1/8 inch -- 2cm, which translates to somewhere between 3/4 - 3/16 of an inch. is this totally unheard of? the nyc bike shops i've called all seem to want to deny the reality of my situation. anyways, my questions: 1. is this not something anyone's ever heard of? will i not be able to replace this stem? 2. if it comes down to it, what would i have to replace on my bike in order to use a standard-sized stem? replace the headset? or the whole fork? or the whole frame? thanks.

sydney

On a 1" thrreaded steerer the proper quill diameter will be 22.2mm, but the stem will be called a 1". There was some schwinn and a few others that used a real hard to find 22.0mm quill.. Look at the quill on the stem you have. It's probably marked. If the ID of that steerer really is 2cm,you are hosed as far as replacement stems that I am aware of. Better to just cut losses and start over.

shecky

Old Schwinn stems used a 21.1mm (.833) diameter. I think some old Japanese bikes may have sporatically used this size, too.

Some older French bikes used a 22mm stem.