Clarification on a shelden brown statement
 

1974 Schwinn Collegiate Sport - I posed something earlier about how the shim's had fallen out and I couldn't get the handle bars to stay. I figured I'd need to buy a new stem (I'm not sure why) so I did some research and I read:

Handlebar Stems

American-style bikes have thicker steerer tubes than Euro bikes, so they take thinner stems. The usual diameter is 21.15 mm vs the British 22.2 mm size. The stems listed below are this size. Sorry we don't have more to choose from, but these are getting scarce.

The handlebar clamp diameter of American stems is usually the ISO standard size, 1"/25.4 mm, or, in BMX applications, 7/8"/22.2 mm, so matching bars to stems is not commonly a problem, as long as the stem fits the steerer.



Does this mean that I can buy any old normal handlebars (1"/25.4mm) and they should fit? That'd be really cool.

That should be the case. There are some exceptions where the bars are 26.0 or 26.4, but most are 25.4.

"any only normal handlebar" is a very vauge description. Racing handlebars on vintage light weights are usually from europe and as such their size differs even within the same country. A lot of japanese bikes used 25.4mm and indeed Nitto still makes them today. If you walk into a bike shop today you have two choices. 26.0 or 31.8 for road bars with the exception of course of some nitto (which in Canada you can order through almost any LBS).

Sheldon Brown not only accumulated and subsequently shared a broad depth and breadth of knowledge about bikes and cycling, he wrote with such clarity it was striking.

In his memory and with all due respect, then, please note the correct spelling of his name.

re th OP: road bar clamp diameters (new) vary between 25.4mm and 26mm. Then there is the quite common 31.8mm. So there. That should make it clear as mud. No, seriously. Hie thee to your LBS and buy a pair of bars that fit. You'll pay a little more, maybe, but apples and awareness never came free anyway.

Just remember older Cinelli handlebars may not be "normal". (26.4mm)

Why do I think Sheldon is up there chuckling at your umbrage? :lol:

Because he would have found a gentler, sharper way to have said it better.

Wouldn't Sheldon just have asked "Who is Shelden Brown?"