I misunderstood earlier - only a Chromo stem. Lightening holes in 6061 T-6 bars? Yowza! That
IS courting catastrophic failure.
Ah, but the whole discussion makes me wax nostalgic about roadsters on the dry lake beds and green/black duotone pages in Rod & Custom magazine.
EDIT>> How 'bout doing the hole-thing to a set of light chromoly bars instead? (like the old Bontager Crowbars) Then you've got the maleability going for you if things do go south on you.