Cinelli 1A vs Nitto Technomic
 

I picked up a '91 Paramount with a 58cm frame. I am 64 and a little overweight, okay, allot overweight, so the 120mm stem is a bit of a reach for me. Most of the Sakae stems I can find have a 25.4 clamp diameter and I need a 26. I have been looking at Cinelli 1A and Nitto Technomic stems in the 80mm-90mm range. The Technomic is significantly taller but I don't need the height since I don't plan on raising the bars. Is there any reason to select one over the other. By the way I am going to do something about the overweight thing but the 120 will still be too long for me.

If you don't need the additional height, there's no real difference between the two. Both very nice stems.

Depending on how high you want the bars, the Tecnomic might actually be a problem. You can only insert it so far into the headtube.

IMO, they're both quality stems. The only advantage the Nitto has is height, and if you don't need that, you may as well choose based on price or appearance.

Before you do anything, double check the diameter of the bar clamp on the Cinelli. The Nitto will be 26.0. But for many years, Cinelli stems were not interchangeable with any other stem (or bar) because Cinelli, and only Cinelli, used a 26-point-something mm diameter for the stems and bars where everyone else used 26.0 or 25.4. The difference between the Cinelli standard and the 3ttt/everybody-else standard was/is enough to make mixing a Cinelli bar with someone else's stem (or vice versa) somewhere between "hard to do and a bad idea" and "impossible." A friend did manage to get a Cinelli bar into a 26.0 3ttt stem 40 or more years ago - it made for more than a few quizzical looks from our other cycling buddies. To this day, if you ask him how it did it all he will say is "it wasn't easy."

Cinelli changed to 26.0 at some point, but I don't remember when (in the 1980s, I think, but I am not at all sure - someone else here will know) and I don't know if the 1A ever came in a 26.0 clamp diameter. I am all but certain that the 1A was first made with the 26+mm clamp.

I'm not saying you shouldn't go the Cinelli route - they look great and, assuming no cracks or other damage, are pretty darn good. Just save yourself some potential grief by doing some homework before you decide to go the Cinelli route.

As Emily Latella would have said: "Oh. Well that's different. Never Mind."

Nitto makes a lot of stems, not just the technomic. Ben's is a great mail order source for all things Nitto.

Ben's Cycle is an all around great shop.

Cinelli has resumed production of the 1A and it is 26 and not a 26.4 of the old days.

Thanks for all the replies. Looks like Nitto has a model that is very close to the Sakae that I have. It is the Dynamic which has the binder bolt on the bottom instead of the front.