Originally Posted by
xavierjaguilar
I'm not denying that a Thomson stem is better made than an X-brand stem, in fact I have their seatpost and I can absolutely attest to its quality. BUT, I don't think that buying a generic-brand stem is necessarily putting anyone at a greater risk for catastrophic failure and landing on your face than a name-brand stem. After all, Salsa, Easton, and Trek have had stem
recalls in the past 2 years. It may be a generic-brand stem, but it's not being sold by a 9 year-old at a bazaar in Calcutta, it'd be from my LBS.
It's also worth saying that we're talking about road componentry in this case. Component failure is ALWAYS dangerous, but if we were talking about a stem for mountain bike use, the strength issue might be a bigger concern.
Good example.
If an x-brand company produces a faulty stem, can they afford
to have a recall at the prices they are selling their stems for?
They can fold up shop, start a new company and start selling Y-Brand stems.
Personally, I like to buy the strongest/safest product I can afford.