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Quill
This should be a one-reply "thread", but I can't find the answer. Why's it called a quill stem?
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Originally Posted by boomerbicyclist
(Post 20939042)
This should be a one-reply "thread", but I can't find the answer. Why's it called a quill stem?
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It was Captain Quill that discovered the first stem off the Cape of Handlebar Bay in 1882.
Unfortunately, it had been there for a long while without proper lubrication and was stuck. |
Look at the business end of this quill pen and you'll have your answer.
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...f5ad7c9ec4.jpg |
Originally Posted by merziac
(Post 20939050)
Internal self contained retention, no external securement?
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Originally Posted by boomerbicyclist
(Post 20939149)
Beats me; all I know is it's a 3T stem on my Bianchi Nuovo Racing. Maybe the vintage will tell you what you need. Afraid I don't know what you're referring to by external securement.
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I have never heard a steering stem called a quill stem. Am I the only one?
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Originally Posted by randyjawa
(Post 20939169)
I have never heard a steering stem called a quill stem. Am I the only one?
Ben |
I think it's due to the little wedge at the bottom, just saw an interesting Suntour quill seatpost on ebay ... it also has the wedge, never had heard of these.
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...6ec469324f.jpg But this wouldn't explain the plunger variation -- also know as quill, I believe: https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...0a08ef7745.jpg pics from ebay. |
They've been called "quill stems" a long time. The term was hardly new when I was riding in the seventies. I suspect Merziac's got it; that those stems are anchored at their "root" by the wedge like the feather of a bird (or a hair on our head - feathers being evolved hair). Most other bike parts are secured where the emerge from the frame, like seaposts. (I doubt the term came from the similarity of the taper at the quill/feather base that you see in the photo above. The early quill stems used a conical wedge and the stem had a squared off cut with all the tapering being inside the stem. Cinelli, TTT, etc. The external wedge Japanese stems came later. The Japanese may well have been using that taper for a long time; bicycles being over a century old there but there was no crosss-over between Japan and the western market until ~1970 and the term "quill" was already well established.) |
Originally Posted by 79pmooney
(Post 20939214)
They've been called "quill stems" a long time. The term was hardly new when I was riding in the seventies. I suspect Merziac's got it; that those stems are anchored at their "root" by the wedge like the feather of a bird (or a hair on our head - feathers being evolved hair). Most other bike parts are secured where the emerge from the frame, like seaposts. (I doubt the term came from the similarity of the taper at the quill/feather base that you see in the photo above. The early quill stems used a conical wedge and the stem had a squared off cut with all the tapering being inside the stem. Cinelli, TTT, etc. The external wedge Japanese stems came later. The Japanese may well have been using that taper for a long time; bicycles being over a century old there but there was no crosss-over between Japan and the western market until ~1970 and the term "quill" was already well established.)
Ben |
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Originally Posted by 79pmooney
(Post 20939214)
They've been called "quill stems" a long time. The term was hardly new when I was riding in the seventies. I suspect Merziac's got it; that those stems are anchored at their "root" by the wedge like the feather of a bird (or a hair on our head - feathers being evolved hair). Most other bike parts are secured where the emerge from the frame, like seaposts. (I doubt the term came from the similarity of the taper at the quill/feather base that you see in the photo above. The early quill stems used a conical wedge and the stem had a squared off cut with all the tapering being inside the stem. Cinelli, TTT, etc. The external wedge Japanese stems came later. The Japanese may well have been using that taper for a long time; bicycles being over a century old there but there was no crosss-over between Japan and the western market until ~1970 and the term "quill" was already well established.)
Ben Ditto my experience. Eric |
Sheldon Brown defined "quill" as:
EDIT: I see after re-reading this thread that others had gotten to the same point. More evidence for it, I suppose. |
Originally Posted by TenGrainBread
(Post 20939076)
Look at the business end of this quill pen and you'll have your answer.
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...f5ad7c9ec4.jpg |
Originally Posted by Lemond1985
(Post 20939385)
QUINN:
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