At my local bike collective, they have crates full of old, mostly junky parts, priced almost free. When they get their hands on a more valuable, collectible, or otherwise desirable piece, they display it in a glass cabinet and price it accordingly. The other day I saw a Cinelli quill stem there, and I'm curious about it.

The director and volunteers were busy at the time, so I didn't have them take it out of the cabinet to let me examine it. I'm basing my description on what I was able to see through the glass.

It looked like a typical quill stem for the most part. It's the type that has an expander plug inside the quill, as opposed to an external wedge. But the part that clamps onto the bar did not appear to have any split. It's one continuous loop. a bolt goes into the bottom of the stem, just aft of where the bar goes, and I assume this pushes forward on some sort of block to exert pressure on the bar from within.

What can you tell me about this? Is it strong, durable, and easy to use? It has a really elegant appearance, and I wonder if it's also a functionally excellent design.

There should be a model number somewhere on the stem, easily visible. That info would help us give you advice

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...what you are describing is a Cinelli 1R stem that has a small wedge that expands against the bar from the back. In co-op settings, this small wedge is often lost, because it's not fastened to the rest of the stem in any way, and often the person who removed the stem and the bar from it loses the little wedge thingie.

They are pretty much useless without it. I just put one on a Raleigh Team Pro yesterday, and had to borrow the wedge fronm a different stem I probably won't use.

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Yes, thank you, 3alarmer. I believe the one I saw was indeed a 1R. (I just found a pic of one through Google.) The one at the collective had a black finish, and it was pretty long, probably >110mm.

I couldn't see if the wedge was present, but I may go back this week and have a closer look. How well have these stems performed for you?

I think they are probably pretty questionable to put into service. I'm still using one though. They have a problem with creaking, and if you lube them up and tighten them enough to stop the creaking, they might break. Had one break once, fortunately it wasn't in a dangerous location.

That's what I'm looking for. I cannot abide creaky stems! Hopefully others will chime in with personal accounts, good or bad.

...in use, I think I've had three or four of them over the years. It can be a little troublesome to get them clamped down on the bar tightly enough to hold it in place if your bar has a lot of reach, so the one I installed was on a Cinelli Giro bar. The wedge thingie is aluminum, so besides the business about losing it, they can also break.

So if you do end up getting it and it has the wedge, lube it up really good with grease on the threads of the bolt that tightens the clamp and the clamp wedge sliding surfaces, and test the bar stability before you ride it. It usually feels to me like I am over torquing it compared to a regular clamping stem before I get the bar in there solidly.

In fact, this reminds me that I have a Mavic bar with very long reach in one of these stems that I've been meaning to replace with something shorter....but it's a lot of work and the thing rides OK as is. Mne have never creaked, but maybe I just don't hear it.

One other thing, older (pre 1998) Cinelli bars and stems had a 26.4 mm handlebar clamp diameter so be sure this stem is compatible with the bars you want to use. Also, a clamp of that design is completely incompatible with carbon bars.

I have 2 .. 1R , 9.5, was as short as they made.. because of the cavity bored to fit the clamping shoe into..