Lascauxcaveman 

Meh. Slightly less ugly ≠ a thing of beauty.

I understand why threadless stems exist, but I don't don't want one on a roadbike. Unless I get a be-logoed, plastic modern wunderbike someday. Because beauty doesn't come anywhere near that thing anyway.

look171

Yes.

thumpism 

This is the method I learned as a Boy Scout.

brockd15 

To each their own, of course.

Functionally I prefer threadless, no question. Maybe there's a certain satisfaction some get from winding a quill stem around the bends of drop bars. Or using the coin and bolt trick to pry the clamp open to clear the bends of some bars or to keep from scratching the clamp section of the bar.....but not me.

That said, if it's aesthetics that you really care about (and we all do), then for me it's all about context. Vintage bikes get quill stems, mostly. Modern steel bikes with 1" head tubes get whatever you want. Modern steel bikes with 1 1/8" or 44mm head tubes get threadless. Modern aluminum and carbon "wunderbikes" (<-- ??) get threadless. Tube size has a lot to do with it, too. Bottom line: I think both can be fantastic depending on the application.

himespau 

I'll agree on tube size. A quill stem would look very wrong with fat carbon tubing.

Earlier in the thread, someone had asked about threadless stems with the steerer pinch bolt in front of the steerer. I have a couple in the parts box. I think they're trek system 2 stems from the mid 90's. The face plate is still on the front, but with only 2 bolts, it's not as noticeable. The stem is also rather thin for a threadless stem.
​
(not my image)

I'd gotten them to put on Soma Hi Rise threaded to threadless adaptors on various builds, but didn't like the look. I'd hoped I could put a large bell to hide the joint and make it almost look like a super tall nitto technomic with removable faceplate or something, but it just didn't look right (and the thomson threadless stem that's on one of them now doesn't look terribly out of place with the fat tubing of a cannondale st-400 - especially since it's a mutt with the VO Crazy Bars).

Salamandrine 

A new thing is always ugly. I'm sure when safety bicycles came out the retro grouches of the time complained about how ugly they were compared to the elegant beauty of an ordinary. Quill stems were always a bit of a hack design anyway. Early ones all looked awkward. Only with time did they gain a degree of elegance.

I prefer the new threadless stems overall, but quill stems do have the advantage of easy adjustability.

look171

Alloy Ritchey stems look great. Skinny unlike the carbon fat things.

cbrstar

I love the look of the old quill stems...But every time I fell off my bike I seemed to get nailed in the groin by them lol.

poprad

I'm pretty pleased with the aesthetics of my Vanilla stem, threadless though it be:

[IMG]Vanilla 5 by Mark, on Flickr[/IMG]

gomango

That's gorgeous.

Part of an incredible overall design.

I wish Vanilla was still putting these out there.

I'm not into Speedvagen all that much......

KonAaron Snake 

+2 - it makes me want one. Tasteful.

These are my only custom stems...







I'm very partial to the style of this stem:



I like the 3ttt evo a lot...



Best looking ever are the old badged steel Cinelli ones.

ridelikeaturtle

On a classic or older bike, quill stems are just so pretty.

KonAaron Snake 

I rather like the Cinelli Grammo stems...little bit of visible welding, but they have beautiful lines.

thumpism 

This one meets the first requirement, the pinch bolt in front. This is from a CL ad for an IBOC Mongoose for sale in town.


Another.


Ringle and others did it, too.

thumpism 

Not entirely true. They were made with rise at some point, but maybe no longer. You just have to keep looking for them. I bought a threadless hybrid steep rise stem (1" steerer) from Hawley while I was still repping for them and put it on my RB-T with a quill adaptor, and I recently found a similar stem that I'll be using on my Cimarron drop bar conversion. I'll be the first to admit that this is a clunky look when you've grown up with the graceful appearance of quill stems, but I've almost always chosen utility over looks when it comes to stuff like this and the removable faceplate is great for bar swaps.
RB-T Stem.JPG

cyclotoine

That thin wall with a perfect sharp stress point at the front scares me.

cyclotoine

I think the syncros cattle head was a good looking threadless stem for MTB at the time. I do like the look of nice modern machined threadless stems like thomson. they also did a similar clam design to the syncros at one time.

avhed

In 1981 I did this and thought it was OK when the bar slid in easily into the hole, but the clamp which is machined for a 26.0 diameter really compromise the the clamping force.
This style of clamping simliar to the Cinelli 1/R is already weak with the evidence of many of them "creaking".

Above a 130mm length my vote goes to the 1975 3ttt Record.