I went to my local bike co-op yesterday to get some more work done on the Mercian, and after I was done checking it in and going over the details of the work to be done, I decided to peruse the parts bins.

I was taking a look at the drop bars to see if there was anything worth picking up, and I see that one (and only one) of the bars still has a stem attached to it. I notice that the stem has a cutout. I pick up the bars and stem, and lo and behold, the stem says "SUPERBE" on it. The bars themselves are Specialized.

I take the combo over to one of the workers and ask "how much for just this stem?" He says he's not sure, let's ask the owner, Kirk.

The binder bolt is black (not original) and 7mm. Kirk says "ahh, French!" and proceeds to try to find a 7mm allen wrench to remove it from the bars. After searching for a couple of minutes, no luck. We determine that this is why it's still attached to the bars!

Finally he says, "You know what, it's yours. Take it home, if you have a 7mm, remove it, and bring me back the bars."

Incredulous, I say "Hey, no problem!"

After finding a 7mm allen wrench, an 8 hour dunk in Evapo-Rust, some elbow grease with steel wool, and an application of Simichrome, here it is. Now I just need the proper binder bolt. Not bad for free, though!