Joined: Jun 2010
Posts: 2,133
Likes: 1,524
From: Medford MA
Bikes: Ron Cooper touring, 1959 Jack Taylor 650b ladyback touring tandem, Vitus 979, Joe Bell painted Claud Butler Dalesman, Colin Laing curved tube tandem, heavily-Dilberted 1982 Trek 6xx, René Herse tandem
I have been using a Cinelli 1A stem with such a crack for years on my Vitus 979. My dad used it before me. He didn't even know it was cracked! I don't really see how this could cause the stem to loosen, much less fail catastrophically. Think about it - it's already cracked in to the bolt hole, which is basically a keyhole on the end of a crack - which is what you're supposed to do to cracked metal parts to keep the crack from propagating. The way I see it, the crack has gone as far as it can go, and you are safe from further progression.
But I have a hunch that I'll be in the minority on this one.
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Owner & co-founder, Cycles René Hubris. Unfortunately attaching questionable braze-ons to perfectly good frames since about 2015. With style.
Last edited by scarlson; 01-10-22 at 05:55 PM.