Originally Posted by
Citoyen du Monde
Borrow a fixed gear bike from one of the hipsters and learn to smoothe out your pedaling and the potential flex of the stem will not be overly important. Power put into the handlebars is almost always wasted power.
Another thing to point out is that in the day, very few people would ride a 130 stem (most were in the 100-120 range) and bars would rarely exceed 42 cm. You would be surprised how much putting a period correct bar and stem on the bike will do to the ride.
Thanks for the advice/recommendation. The flex is noticeable even when starting off from a stand-still, as well as sprinting in the drops so even though I need to smooth up my stroke there is always going to be pull on the bars, and therefore the stem. ... The 130 is a perfect fit for me, and it is a "period correct" Cinelli stem (with the Cinelli
stamp on top, 'winged C' logo face plate, places it from 1978 to late 80's) and Cinelli 66-40 bar set-up, taken right outta the 80's which is vintage correct for my '85 Gap....
