Searching for a "Pop Top" quill. Being new to road biking I'm looking for quill that has good stiffness isn't ugly and makes changing bars easy till I find bars I like.

I understand the Salsa SUL quill is a good stiff quill, but it is about as ugly as you can get, the only ones uglier that I've seen so far are those with visible welds.

All suggestions will be appreciated!

Wow Thank for all the assistance so far! Just in case no one has answered thinking I've not used the search function I ALWAY USE THE SEARCH FUNCTION BEFORE I ASK FOR ASSISTANCE!

Well, sometimes it takes the people who really know this stuff a couple of days to find the post....

Can anyone help Tom out?

East Hill

personally, I have no idea what Tom means by "pop top quill"...maybe others have the same problem. How about a picture?

I think he means a "traditional" 1" quill stem for a 1" threaded steerer tube, that has a more modern removable faceplate to allow easy bar swap outs.

They're around but not too common, and I don't think anyone makes a current production one. Also, the ones that are around tend to be twisty/flexy - which is most likely why they are not common/popular.

Not feeling the love....... poor baby. Ok go look one of these. I have one of the 3TTT and they are plenty stiff.

https://cgi.ebay.com/NOS-Cinelli-Frog...742.m153.l1262

or

https://cgi.ebay.com/New-Old-Stock-3T...742.m153.l1262

Wow, impatient much? 20 minutes and he starts to whine about people not responding to his (demanding) original post? We're not your servants here, deal with it.

Actually, it was 24 hours plus 20 minutes. You missed the date....

Alright I'm sorry I used the language I saw in a couple other posts that had gotten a good number responses. I assumed “pop top” was a commonly used term. Well you know what they say about assuming. That's a newbie for ya!

What I'm referring to are those quill stems that either have a removable plate or I understand some are hinged making bar installation and replacement simple and quick.

From posts I've read I understand that lack of rigidity is common among quill stems therefore I do not want to purchase just any that look cool. Those I’ve read about that have good rigidity seem to either be crazy expensive if I find them or as a friend of mine says “not just ugly, but oogly” or at the very least have no artistic qualities whatsoever.

The biggest deal for me is that I don't want to spend $50-$70 on a ugly or utilitarian looking if that is not all that is available in a quality rigid design. Especially since my Ebay searches lead me to believe they have low resale value.

I would not care so much about this if my limited experience with regular quill stems didn't give me the impression that removing bars from them is a pain in the…and they are likely to ruin the appearance of bars upon installation and removal.

There aren't any that are not ugly, if that's one of your requirements. You would be better off trying to estimate as accurately as possible what stem length you need, based on your current one, and then just going with that. It's not that easy to find any traditional road bike quill stem now, though.

It looks like I'm not the only one who makes mistakes and assumptions since it was 24 hours and 19 minutes later that I complained about not getting assistance.

I've seen those however regarding the Frog I've read there is rigidity issues and all those I've found are too long. I've seen that 3TTT and I like it, but its expensive and I've found no information on how rigid that model is.

I get it, now. Most of the removable face-plate stems have to have a bulky design to allow for the 2-4 threaded bolts that have to screw in. Some of the "hinged" type (like the Modolo in particular) have a poor reputation. Perhaps the 3TTT is a superior version of the hinged type, but I can't speak from experience. Most accounts of the Frog had very high praise for it's rigidity, but perhaps the reports changed over longer term use.
There are plenty of *forged* alloy traditional quill stems that are plenty rigid and are in daily use, but then there is the dreaded AVA deathstem, too. I recall a Ritchey stem with a 2-bolt plate that looked good to me, at the time. It's sure to be out of production so, if you liked it, you'd have to find it used or NOS.

The 3ttt's are plenty rigid..... I have an extra one in 110 that i am not using in mint ehape if you want. I'll let it got for much less than the ebay price.