Haha yes temporary of course.

I vote change it back, if aesthetics is the point keep it old style.

+1 for quill stem. Threadless looks acceptable only on 1 1/8'' steerers.

That is SOOO elegant and perfect. The taper from the quill to where it meets the bar clamp is gorgeous. Lugged frame, curved forks.... Putting a threadless stup on that bike would be criminal IMO. There is nothing to "upgrade" as it is fabulous as it is.

There is no punishment severe enough for this crime. ;)

I had to shove rusty screwdrivers into my eyes to ease the suffering.

Gotta do a silver stem if you are going to get the appearance close with threadless.

I used hot concentrated acid! I think I can encapsulate the general style with a single word....HORRID!!!*





*as opposed to the original style, which was...STUNNING!

Yes I agree it did not suit the overall look of the bike. How about something like the Velo Orange polished stem? Think it's worth the $40 or just leave as is?

http://i62.tinypic.com/nlbyuo.jpg

They are all hideous to my eyes and detract substantially from the overall aesthetic of bikes, particularly steel bikes. I don't understand why you want to do this. It just takes one of the worst of the budget cutting changes that modern bike makers have adopted and applies it inappropriately to an aesthetically beautiful bike. If there was some kind of performance improvement I might understand it, but there isn't.

IMO, this almost always just looks wrong. I've made this mistake myself. I have nothing against threadless stems when paired with a threadless steerer and headset, but with an adapter and a threaded headset... It always looks like a kludge. Unless you have a really specific need that this can solve, I would not do it.

I almost always use quill-to-threadless adapters since the wide choice of threadless stems makes fitting a bike easier and greatly widens the choice of handlebars. I like stems with faceplates and I like being able to easily adjust the stem height, kind of the best of both worlds. Sorry, not sorry.

had this one come by
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com...de08b50554.jpg

and have done this once. kinda wrong in many ways. well...
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com...f99f7bf345.jpg
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com...d2a3559d5d.jpg

Would you put a quill stem on a 2015 carbon fiber Tri Bike? Would look lame, right? What you are doing is reversed, but still arrives at lame. :)

Just break out the Blue Magic and polish the snot out of that lovely Quill. Make it match the lugs.

It would purely be for the look, but after trying the stem style out I agree it does not fit the look. Im glad I tried it though, just to see how it actually looked.

OK, i know a lot of people do not like the Cinelli Alter stem, but i think it is really cool. i used a Deda adapter and some carbon fiber spacers and i think it turned out pretty slick. i filed the inside of the bottom spacer so it sits flush on the Record headset.

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=440749

I had a Cinelli Grammo 1" threadless that didn't have that chunky look but with that age of bike a quill is the only stem tthat looks correct. A Cinelli with the Oval Milano logo would be perfect or one of the faux lugged Pivo stems or the Carnielli stems that came on the lower model Bottechias. If you put any type of threadless stem on that Atala I'd have to pull your C&V card. Lol

I tend to agree that vintage rides look best with quill stems, and I would never dream of converting any of my vintage steeds to threadless. But for my modern bikes, I don't bother with quill.

1982 Jack Taylor:

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7357/...2968d583_b.jpg

2014 Jeff Lyon:

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8803/...235b48ab_b.jpg

Did you use some of the Carpet as a shim?

Did Jeff make this stem or is the nitto ui7 painted to match? and he just brazed that bit on?

also, lots of harsh in this thread. i have a classic build coming up soon in the lineup and the builder choose to use a threadless stem. I am looking for the right stem to use, the VO and nitto look the part. the constructeur bikes i find look very appropriate with a matching threadless stem. If Weigle and Herse do it from time to time...

also, some of us are picky on bar selection, and moving to 31.8 bars open huge amounts of choice.

I tried it on my 83 Team Fuji (Deda stem adapter, Nashbar stem and bars, Cane Creek levers), and when I bought a new CF bike, I put it back together with the original Nitto quill stem and bars. I prefer the look with aero levers, so I did switch out the Gran Compe levers with the Cane creek levers. I guess it's not completely back to stock.

It was functional, but I like the quill stem look on a C&V better.

Jeff did make this stem. Weigle's next bike which is in the jig right now will have a threadless stem, but it will be a stock Nitto sold by Compass. It's also going to get a Velo Lumino stem switch for the lighting system.

Anton
velolumino.com

I've seen some examples that this has worked out well on --- I have seen some pics In the Centurion Ironman thread of old IM's with modern groups and threadless setups , and it looked good,

but those had the whole kit -- modernish wheels , brifter groups , etc.

On the OP's bike (or what we can see of it) -- I'd rather use a Technomic if getting some more height was needed

Zombie thread, but I'll comment anyway... I think it can work, but try to exercise some taste. I'm pretty happy with how a threadless stem and adapter looks on the PX10 I'm currently rebuilding. I do think you have to go with silver though, or matching paint. Black with white logos/graphics is never going to work aesthetically, for me at least.

Also, let's not forget Alex Singer and probably others were using threadless stems decades ago.

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=504548
Sorry for the bad phone pic, but you get the idea.

2 things. First, I see what you did there sneaking in the fact you are going to be Weigle'd. so sweet man, dream bike stuff!

Second, I may need to chat with you soon about a couple lighting setups... still trying to decide what i want to do.

all the best

OK, let me just sneak in and say:

1. Quill stems are beautiful.
2. Threadless stems are not.
3. End of story.

OK, I admit that some custom threadless stems can be made up to look not quite as hideous as most of them, but that's as far as I'm willing to go. Flame away!

OK. ;)

Quill stems were always a weak design. They eventually will kill the steer tube if the bike is ridden long enough. They do of course have the obvious advantage of easily adjustable height.

I'm not convinced that threadless stems are inherently ugly, though I actually do concede that the vast majority are hideous. That most quill stems looked nice was mostly because of the design sensibility of the times. Certainly there were also some hideous quill stems by the late 80s.

I'm not fond of the setup on my Cannondale. The adapter I found was pretty heavy steel and does not allow for a stem cap. I picked the stem because it was branded Cannondale but it was designed to line up with a sloping top tube and it's not level. The bar came with the stem and also says Cannondale but I don't much like it either after trying it.

This bike came with a polished hatchet stem and anatomic handlebar. I found a dinged up black hatchet stem and painted it yellow, a Bianchi branded anatomic handlebar that I painted flat black, and will try that next. Someday eventually.

Photo from during build, yes I know the front brake is not connected.

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/481/1...a08fc7dd_c.jpgUntitled by Darth Lefty, on Flickr

is this something we c&vers should worry about?

my bikes are pretty old and are ridden a lot.

when you say "kill," does this render the old bike useless? can it be fixed?

if a reynolds 531 bike is from 1973, for example, when will its steerer be killed?

Specifically, the steering tube will tend to bulge out after a long time, and then it's in danger of fatigue cracking. Can't be fixed other than by brazing in a new one. It's not the age, it's the miles, and probably the size of the rider and terrain the bike was ridden on. Honestly, 99.9% of people don't have to worry about it. Think 50,000+ miles. (see what i mean.... ) Just inspect the steer tube as it is very obvious when it sets in.

I pretty much agree with these opinions and observations:

Threadless Steerers and Headsets by Jobst Brandt

Your frame will most likely crack way before your steerer tube gives out.