Well today I finally got around to freeing the hopelessly stuck stem on my U0-14. The expander wedge was corroded in place and despite by best efforts with boiling water, freeze-off, penetrating oil, and a well aimed hammer it refused to budge. The end result was me taking a clamp to the stem to push the bolt down with more direct force than I could deliver with a hammer (like a giant cotter press) and it worked!

Unfortunately in the process, despite my best efforts at padding , the stem was gouged at the edges of the clamp.

So is my stem dead or at least significantly potentially deadly to me now?






I weigh 130lbs now if that helps for reference of forces to be applied.

If needed I'd love to replace it with enough Peugeot branded stem if anyone has one kicking around. Otherwise if needed I'm probably going to find something similar (Gran Compe?) and get it engraved/etched at a jeweler with the same "Peugeot" field or the lion at the front face of the clamp. Well, again assuming if needed and if it is even safe to have something like that done?

It's hard to get an appreciation for those two gouges from the pics Fenway, but if it were mine, I'd just radius them so as to discourage any stress risers, and ride it.

(...Then again, I'm still riding my AVA death stem ))

I have a few of those tucked away. Let me know how long of a reach you need and I will see what I have. Probably best to do this through private email. How does that sound? Is this the kind you need?

It would help to know if the stem is a standard 25.4 or a French 22 for either keeping or replacing the stem. If its a 22 I would suggest that you replace it with a plain SR stem with no markings it would match the bike and be a better stem.

We will probably crash and burn together, my friend.

I did have an alloy handlebar go once near the stem insertion.
Luckily I was too young at that point to appreciate all the possibilities.

Hard to tell from the pictures, but it doesn't look all that bad to me. I would just take a file to it and smooth it out a bit. Come to think about it, as mentioned by auchencrow, I too am still riding with an AVA stem on my daily commuter. It's 40 years old - when are these things supposed to crack?

-G

When you least expect it ..sometime in the next forty years.

Or never.

Having said that you will probably now go out and see a crack in it....