Originally Posted by
carleton
+1
The 3T Arx stems are really good, fairly priced, easy to find, with LOTS of size options. I've owned a few when experimenting with fit.
Avoid the titanium bolts, though. You'll need a star wrench to adjust them as the metal is soft. If you do happen to get a stem with ti bolts, go to a hardware or hobby store and replace the bolts with steel that use allen wrenches. The ti bolts aren't bad. They are just a PITA when you have to carry a special tool to adjust them.
Jimmy Watkins (USA) using a 3T Arx stem on a Felt TK1 (using a standard fork) vs Shane Perkins (AUS) riding a Thomson X4 stem on a BT in the London Olympics:
Not the stem above but this one with the wider bolt spacing on the face as seen on Jimmy's bike. The current MTB stems run a wider spacing, but still not as wide as the older versions. I doubt you'd be able to find any that are new. The titanium bolts on the 2nd tier (red) model are a PITA. I've broken a couple, but never broken when using a torque wrench to tighten. Those older versions don't have them, just the old allen head bolts, but I actually prefer the torx bolts. I think it's a far better design, especially when used for bolts that you work with a lot. I have rounded a number of allen bolts and was due to change out my DA set on my cranks but I just changed to 165 vision cranks and they came with torx bolts and I like them!
