beejee

some of this perhaps this is more of a tourers question-

anyone know a good stouring stem, and the type of metal I want it to be made out of?
I am currently trying to remove my alloy stem from my steel frame/fork bike. I have a 22mm stem/quill.

In the mean time I am trying to work out how I am going to take out this stuck stem (it is surely stuck from oxidisation, not because I havent unscrewed and tapped the quill). Currently I can't get the nut out from underneath, so cant tap from this direction.

Also whether I should undo all my handle bar tape/brakes/gears to unthread the bars through the stem, or just dremmel/hacksaw the buggering stem off.

beejee

oh while I'm questioning...
Whats a good grease to use to ensure that when I put my cranks back, next time I will be able to take them off with little problems, rather than ruining my cranks thread.... I might want to use this grease all over the bike, like the bottom bracket (which I'm about to find out how stuck it might be) and as I have been mentioning the problems above.. somewhere on my quill perhaps?

Is there a good general grease for all this? like a grease I can get for cars.. from say Halfords or some hardware shop.

DCB0

Waterproof grease from the hardware store is good stuff for general bicycle bearing use. I reccomend no greasing square taper bottom bracket spindles, though. Pulling the threads out is almost always do to tool user error - the tool was not sufficiently threaded in or there was a washer left in the hole that blocked the action of the remover.

Park Tool also reccomends not greasing square taper BBs... I think their reasoning is that it makes it more likely to overtighten the cranks so they slide too far up the spindle and get damaged. They also claim it is unnecessary as the layer of oxide on the aluminum cranks will give sufficient lubrication. You should, however, grease the heads and threads of the cranks bolts/nuts.

Many people disagree with this, though, and think something bad will happen if you don't grease the tapers. If you really want to grease your spindle, use the same grease you use on bearings.

Definitely grease BB cup threads, seatpost/seat tube interface, stem quill and inside of fork steerer tube, and pedal threads. Do not grease clamp-on type stem clamps (threadless 'aheadset' style), or the handlebar/stem interface.

jeepr

as a last resort I have cut off the stem as far up as possible so I could remove the fork and clamp the stem in a vise. Ammonia will dissolve the corrosion. so you can try squirting some down the sides of the stem. Or soak the whole thing if you cut the stem off.

fietsbob

I22.0 is a non standard, French, fork, and so stem has to match.
22.2 is = 7/8" that's what the rest of the world uses..

Once you get the stem out, the rust cleanup in the fork steerer.
with an adjustable reamer, could end up taking out the 0.2mm

beejee

I probably have the 22.2mm stem, just didnt have my vernier on hand. (but thanks for that interesting information)

ok thanks will get some waterproof grease from my hardware store. And I won't be applying that to my spindle, although I might look up that bearing grease.

The ammonia sounds interesting, that won't be damaging to my steel frame then?

jeepr

No, it won't hurt your frame.

MichaelW

Sheldon Brown's website has some advice on using ammonia to unseize a stem.