Handlebar question. I have only to imagine that you are referring to the actual forward facing part of the quill stem pointing slightly down-hill. To maintain a low h.bar position the stem is angled of course. What is different the past few years is with threadless stems, the way they're made, allows them to have a more right angled shape. The way old quill stems were forged didn't allow for any such design, they just have to be made longer to start with .The upper-most part, NEEDED to be beefier and at that angle to avoid flex.Quill style can't start of short then bend, they'd just flex and /or weaken. I have quills on a few bikes.To me, threadless seemed odd. I had to ask folkes about those, (threadless) designs a couple years ago.