Originally Posted by
cyclotoine
Yeah they sucked too. They were ugly and prone to failure. There are still lots of cheeps stems out there for quill with removable plates but they are ugly. The threadless stem was a great innovation. I can't stress enough how superior this is in terms of weight savings and ease of maintenance. Think of the bike fitters changing stems out on floor bike etc... and what a PITA it would be if they were quill stems with a single pinch bolt. Scratched bars and re-taping all the time. It sucked.
Quill stems went through all the evolution, removable face plates, 1-1/8", 1-1/4", alloy binders and wedges, they were incredibly light too, but ultimately the threadless system is better. We're seeing threads disappear on other areas of the bikes too. BB's gone. Axles, reduced... Now it is just the oversized QR axle that has threading on the end and the hubs have no threading left at all.
Quill stems are beautiful but would not fit on anything made today. Thankfully we are seeing a resurgence of classic components following the resurgence of classic frames and a few have been posted. I like the new thread less stems that have an extension to do away with the spacers. Those look pretty good IMHO. but I also think a modern bike with threadless and no spacers on top still looks good.
store.velo-orange.com/index.php/components/stems/threadless-stems/vo-tall-stack-threadless-stem-31-8-rise.html
there are also fancy steel type of stems like this I believe.
I believe that the steel versions, done by custom builders, came first, so this VO alloy stem is a copy of those.
As far as outfitting steel-frame bikes, the oversized and threadless stems will always stand out as bulky unless the frame tubing is oversized, which is pretty much the opposite of what C&V is about, sorry to say.
I found the picture of the fractured TTT stem clamp very disturbing. Usually it is the sleeker, lighter stems that crack in the clamp area, forged stems such as Cinelli and Modolo.
One never knows what stem clamp might fail in tension like that, just as one never knows what hub might suddenly be found with a chunk of the flange torn off (reason enough not to use radial lacing imo). I can't recall ever seeing a failed Japanese production stem, and there are a lot of them out there.