I picked up some tires for a donated bike today. The seller has an early Schwinn Suburban (he thought 1970) with a stem neither of us recognized. It definitely seems a bit upscale from what I would expect to see on a Suburban. Any idea what it is?

I think it may be a Titan (steel) stem, which would have been OEM on certain older Paramounts from the early 60's or so.

Maybe GB (Gerry Burgess)? Their top of the line spearpoint stem in 531 is stamped with their logo, but this might be one from lower in the price-point lineup.
Here's the 531:

The mystery stem could be someone else's knockoff of a GB spearpoint too.

They made the spearpoint in Hiduminium (Al alloy) too, later than the 531 I assume. With a fake lug shoreline that mimics the steel lug.

Schwinn was buying "S" branded stems from GB, while that is not proof, it could be a possibility.

Below is a Schwinn branded stem that I believe was made by GB.

The separate cap under the bolt head says Titan to me.

Lots of steel stems had that separate doodad under the bolt head, including French and English-made. Annoying when they get lost, though they're prettey interchangeable between brands.

Many better steel stems brazed that part on, like Cinelli and the GB 531.

Here's a Philippe lugged-steel with a doodad that I'm pretty sure is from a different stem, though it works fine.



Here's a Titan stem, the adjustable variant, but that simple lug shoreline is how I remember Titan stems.


Did they also make one with a swoopy lug shape like OP's ? Pics if ya got 'em!

Here's the one that came on early '70s Raleigh Record. I assumed it was made in Nottingham, but I don't think there's an R.I. stamp on it, so maybe it could be from Belgium. My guess is it's more likely a Nottingham knockoff of a Titan.



(Not my pics; scraped from the net)

Looks like the famous weak binder R/I was known for~ pretty thin metal-wise for the task.
What's pictured is probably an attempt to save a very bad design.
The two Raleigh stems I've owned were almost devoid of markings- not even the "e M" roll mark that the rest of the bike parts got. The last stem had a barely legible date code on it- this a '71.

-D.S.

Thanks for the responses. I at first thought "Titan" as well, but don't recall ever seeing a lugged Titan stem. I also saw no "GB" or "S" markings which might have suggested a Schwinn-approved GB stem. That's also a massively long spearpoint on the lug. Again, something I've not seen before, though recognize that bulgie's examples showed pretty long spears. You can see a bit of braze metal blob at both the tip of the spear and the hollow of the curve near the stem bolt. I have to believe if it was a custom stem the builder would have cleaned up the shorelines better. So, perhaps some GB model as Mark suggested, but if so, why no "GB" (or "S") logo?

Reynolds made them as well and they shipped on Clubman bicycles from Humber, Ridge, and Raleigh.
Phil