Originally Posted by
elcruxio
Not sure about the price levels of quill stems. The worse so far has been a Nitto Technomic which to me wasn't cheap. But I'll grant you it's 130mm long. I'd never put that thing on a road bike, hoo boy no way. I get nervous thinking about it...
I suppose the flex would be manageable with a slammed less than 90mm stem but that's also the beauty of theadless. Spacer stack height needs to grow to ridiculous heights before it starts to have a negative effect. My experiences with quill have shown that while you can get really good stack height with a tall quill, it's not at all worth it.
Again, BS, I own a Nitto Technomic!! Not only do I own one it's extended to almost it's limit, and I get no noticeable flex with it at all. I've had that stem for over 15 years and rode plenty of times with it in the mountains, it's now on my touring bike and again no issues with it in that application either.
And actually there is a limit to how far you can extend a threadless stack according to how high the steering column length is, then the headset limits the stack height as well which will be listed in the instructions for the headset. Most carbon fork manufactures recommends not to exceed 4 to 5 cm of height if the steerer is steel or aluminum, if it's a carbon steerer it's even less at 3 to 5 cm. So no you don't have the ability to grow the stack height to ridiculous heights.