
Help me choose a stem?
This is my mid 80s Raleigh Marathon. The factory 95mm stem had me a little cramped so I replaced it with a cheap 130mm from eBay.
I thought it looked OK in the photos and liked the idea of the removable face plate bar clamp.
Installed, it’s klunky and vibrates a ton and I get some weird wobble at higher speeds occasionally, and it also doesn’t look very good on the bike. I think I also 115-125mm is going to be closer to ideal on the reach.
It seems like quill stems in that length are starting to become harder to find but I prefer the traditional look, at least for this bike.
On the other hand, I really do like the removable face plate and the idea of being able to flip my stem or change it without having to deal with wrapping bars has me considering a quill/threadless adapter.
This is a commuter, and I want to spend about $30 on a stem or maybe $50 total for a conversion.
A Nitto Technomic would fall right in between on price but I’m not looking for height and am ignorant as to what setting a really tall stem way down in the head tube might do?
Any ideas? Feeling stuck. It’s a lot of fuss maybe for such a humble object but I spend a lot of time on it.