Originally Posted by
rmfrance
Very nice work, with obvious meticulous attention to detail.
I'm not being sniffy - honestly - but the current quill stem extension worries me, security-wise. Leaving aside the contradiction that it's raised and combined with dropped bars, I fear you're risking a structural failure with it set so high, and with possibly little inside the steerer tube.
I don't subscribe to Sheldon Brown's slightly sensationalised vision of 'the death stem' BUT I've seen even shiny premium stems develop cracks from expander slots whose upper ends were squared, rather than rounded-off. I always round-off any I find like that, using a round needle file - a quick and simple fix.
I look forward to seeing the finished bike!
Fear not! The quill stem in this bike is long and is well inserted. It is a tourist bike and was designed to be accommodating for all kinds of people. If you look carefully, you can see the pen mark on the stem to ensure that it has the required depth (minimum 2.25 inches)
SR stem in my 1965 Dilecta Le Blanc
Another SR stem in my 1976 Supercycle Excalibur (nee Bridgestone)
Original steel stem in my 1956 Royal Nord President
Original stem in my 1972 CCM Turismo.
. Seat and bars level is what I try to achieve and sometimes change to a taller stem (SR made some great ones!) on my bikes to suit my refined and older riding style. For context, I have shown the original sales info, and a number of my other bikes of the era with properly inserted taller stems.