I was playing around with it last night and got it adjusted without much difficulty but won't get a chance to ride it until the weekend. I would think that if the quill adapter is appropriately tightened and the stem is securely fastened on the adapter, there would be nowhere for the race to go. I'm not worried about catastrophic failure, I think some people have a flair for the dramatic. I got a response back from the guy who posted in the retro with STI thread (a very sweet schwinn peleton) who confirmed he has been running this setup without issues for a few thousand miles.