Well, this may not be what you were looking for, but here's my threadless stem, which I consider elegant. It was built this year by Jeff Lyon to my design, to match the frame he made for me last year. I liked the frame so much, it made me wince to stick a stock stem on it. (Tip for anyone considering a custom frame: talk with your frame builder about a custom stem at the same time). It's a 1" stem, and all stock stems these days are built for 9/8" steerers, thus needing a shim to work with 1" steerers. A 1" stem doesn't look as bulky. I hemmed and hawed over going quill or threadless, but in the end, I prefer threadless for modern builds.



Here's the stem up close. The cap sticking up from the top of the stem is actually a switch for the generator lighting system. I co-designed it with Tom Matchak, a frame builder in NH, and we will be selling them shortly: