Why would you say or think that?

Not generally a fan of threadless stems on C&V, but I think this one turned out OK. It's the only threaded-to-threadless adaptor bike I've got, but it was built for function.
The entire handlebar/brake lever/stem assembly comes off as a piece when it's packed in my soft sided EVOC bag for travel.

I was thinking the same thing.

As to the original question, I'm going to use a threadless adapter when I do the build on my 1990 Diamond Back Centurion. The frameset is black with white graphics, I found a new bike takeoff Diamond Back saddle with white graphics. I also had a set of black drop bars with white graphics and was looking for a black stem when I stumbled on to these:



Here's the frame and saddle:




Since I'm also doing an STI conversion I felt the threadless stem wouldn't look too out of place. Maybe it's a bit much, we'll see when it's all together but I think it will work. I will probably use a different saddle for long rides but when I saw that one I couldn't resist.

So I made a purchase of the adapter and a nice 3T stem to see how the bike would look. I am not really ad impressed as I thought I would be and agree that the original style quill looks much nicer and cleaner. The stem is nice bit the fact that it is thicker than the bike frame males it look off. It is kinda cool though.

What do you all think? This or the previous photo on page one with the quill?


*Ignore the temporary shim lol*

cardboard shims?

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?

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


and have done this once. kinda wrong in many ways. well...

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.

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:



2014 Jeff Lyon:

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.