Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 19,810
Likes: 597
From: NJ, NYC, LI
Bikes: 1940s Fothergill, 1959 Allegro Special, 1963? Claud Butler Olympic Sprint, Lambert 'Clubman', 1974 Fuji "the Ace", 1976 Holdsworth 650b conversion rando bike, 1983 Trek 720 tourer, 1984 Counterpoint Opus II, 1993 Basso Gap, 2010 Downtube 8h, and...
Utterly bizarre.
With all the talk of AVA "death stems" the only vintage quill stems I've seen that had failed in a catastrophic way were 3TTT stems on which the handlebar clamp broke exactly where this one is hinged. The ones that broke were not hinged. I have seen two, and heard of several others. My first thought, on seeing these, was that someone tried to fix one that had broken. To think that the factory did this... Well, that's appalling. My advice would be: recycle that.