unsettling. I always thought that the moulding on the stem was a stress riser, and that the horizontal part of the stem broke ahead of the step. AVA's were very badly looked at by the time I started racing, and I never had any experience with one. The later '80s Modolo, however, broke with alarming regularity across the handlebar fixing bolt, leading to several disasters that I, personally, watched in the peleton. I applied my "learning by observation" training and dismantled my own modolo stem and went back to Cinelli and Cinelli. All of you with this type of stem: you can run your thumbnail around the edge of the handlebar fixing bolt hole. If it snags, you've got a crack started and a Modolo death stem about to be made. Kinda off thread, but strangely appropriate, don't you think?