Originally Posted by doppiodan

A co-worker of mine had his crack, but I don't remember where. He's a big dude, but mostly just wipes his museum-piece bikes with a diaper. I would hope that as a degreed mechanical engineer, he would have properly torqued (and NOT over-torqued) anything and matched the stem to the right diameter bar and steerer. I have an X4 on my hardtail and love it...still, I would not design a stem from machined 7000 series aluminum if I did it from the ground up. Thomsom may be doing some thorough heat treating that gets around this, but there's a reason most other quality stems are forged. I try not to think about this when I'm wrenching on wide riser bars and enjoying the stiff Marzocchi/Thomson/Azonic front end on my bike. Your best friend here is a torque wrench and Phil's fine green grease on the bolts.