Originally Posted by scarlson

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.