Hi, anybody using a vintage silver syncros quill stem on their vintage steel frame? Any thoughts versus a traditional Cinelli/3ttt quill stem for a columbus steel frame?

What vintage is this frame? Cinelli/3TTT stems would be more period correct for a steel frame from the 70's and 80's. I think Syncros came along in the 90's or so.

Use whatever the hell you want to use.

Not sure what kind of “thoughts” you’re looking for. Are you just looking for a suitable quality quill stem for functionality, or are you concerned with matching the vintage/aesthetics? I have quill stems on five of my old 70s/80s/90s road bikes (Peugeot, Motobecane, Vitus, Tunturi, and Cannondale). One is a Cinelli. Three are unknown brand (Or at least no visible branding. I’d have to take it apart to see if there’s a brand on the inserted part.), but they’re of similar composition and quality, and function just fine for my needs. One of them (on the 80s Cannondale 3.0 series) is a quill with a clamp-on stem and 4-bolt handlebar clamp. It’s used on a threaded fork/steer tube and sort of has a more modern threadless headset look to it. — Dan

If I remember correctly, the single bolt ones were recalled shortly before the company got bought out a while back. I have one in the garage somewhere. I agree that a Cinelli, 3T, or something similar would be more appealing, those Syncros were (are) Fuggly.

I use this stem on one of my bikes. It also comes in black.

I also have an old Shimano stem with the same look, but since that one is no longer being made it's hard to find.

Yeah that is a good looking stem, I bought one for a bike and it worked well. Sad they stopped making them but glad I own one and saved a lovely old frame from being turned into a fixed gear (nothing against fixed gear but this was a nice old handbuilt frame from Proteus which was a bike shop in Maryland somewhere that used to make frames)

Bought one of these a couple years' back, fits my Motobecane's steering tube perfectly!

https://velo-orange.com/collections/...s-stem-adaptor

Factory Five was a Shanghai based company. They didn't make the stem themselves. They bought it from a factory and sold it to the western market with a markup.

The stem is still being made. The factory never stopped making them. If you'd like to make some money, you too can invent a brand logo, email the same factory and ask for your logo to be laser etched, and then resell the thing in the west for middleman profit.

Velo Orange is another company that does the same type of business. I'm assuming you've heard of them. All these guys are middleman merchants. Go to a trade show conference in Asia, sign some contracts with factories, resell the stuff in the west with a markup.

Nowadays the Chinese factories are getting smart and started to sell the stuff direct, so the middlemen are getting squeezed.

By the way the Aliexpress price is way higher than the price on the domestic Chinese market. They're still charging a westerner markup. For the real Chinese price search on Taobao.com, Chinese equivalent of Amazon. Same ownership as AliExpress.

https://a.aliexpress.com/_msdl9qv

They were, that is correct. I don't know how they came to the stem but like most of the world people design something and likely they have a factory build it that is super common. Some have their own factories some do not. You miss the R+D and just assume it falls from the sky. Sure Velo Orange has products made overseas but it is not like they aren't putting in R+D time which is the crucial element. Just saying well they signed a contract and bought some stuff and sell it at a different price is part of the story and glosses over how the product initially came to be.

Sure you can go to a factory somewhere and say build me whatever and if they can do it, they might do it but you don't get far like that but if you say "we have this design and would like you to produce it" and then they are working with them long term to make sure QC is good and everything is working well then you have a good product and can stay in business for a while.

Grocery stores don't can all their own corn in house.

I agree with you there is a difference between:

A) the factory was already producing the product before you came into the picture, you're simply acting as a middleman reseller, vs...
B) the design existed in the past but was no longer being made, you paid a factory to start making it again, vs...
C) the design didn't exist, you wrote an email to the factory describing what you want, and the factory's designer drew it up in CAD on your behalf
D) you designed the thing yourself and sent the factory a CAD drawing

With companies like VO and F5, it's mostly A and B, a small amount of C, and zero D.

There is an Australian company called "www.justrideit.com.au" which is currently selling the same exact stem under their own name "JRI Rigg Stem 1" - 31.8mm". So either an Australian company is stealing a Chinese company's design, or the design actually belongs to the factory and both companies are pure middlemen. The Australian company is selling it for $121. You can buy it direct on Aliexpress for $34 which includes free shipping from the other side of the world (lol). The local Chinese price on Taobao is about $20 (at today's USD exchange rate). The source cost at the factory is probably $5-8. What a joke.

Taobao link:
https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?abb...c=taobaoSearch

And here's the Shimano stem that I also have. Similar look, different mechanism. It uses a long allen key to reach inside the stem for tightening. I actually like the Shimano version more but it's only for traditional smaller diameter handlebars.

https://cicli-berlinetta.com/product...e7gL0tqP4UovR-

See you are saying zero of D and a small amount of C which is simply not the case. I am sure some are old designs and there are certainly companies buying products and putting a label on it but to make those claims that is ridiculous. That is not how this works. People do make designs that is how these companies get bigger. If you are just middle people then you don't make it far. SRAM didn't get big from just buying product from overseas it was a lot of R+D (not as much as maybe they needed) and then establishing factories overseas and probably now developing relationships with other factories. They are not just buying product.

From what I recall F5 did design the stem so they didn't just buy it but of course now that they are out of business people have taken the design. That is why you see it and see it cheap. You give way too much power to these Chinese factories as if they are all these massive powerhouses doing everything and nobody else is doing anything which is patently false. I wonder where you came up with that narrative or did you buy it from a Chinese factory after they designed it?

I came up with it from insider information that I know and you don't know.

I used to live in Shanghai 2013-2019 and am personally acquainted with the Factory Five owners. They had a shopfront and I used to go on group rides organized by them. I also bought a body measured custom steel frame from their factory (as in the factory they purchase from, not as in they own the factory).

I have some Chinese manufacturing experience too. I leased space in a Chinese auto parts factory and paid them to build a production line for custom seats. Not my main profession, we did it because my company needed 30,000 seats and it was cheaper to build our own factory production line than to buy them from someone else.

No I'm not giving too much power to the Chinese factories. They literally do everything. The Chinese factories are the professionals - more professional than any factory in the west. We simply cannot compete. You should visit China - it's not the 1990s anymore and your mindset needs a major update. Have a look at the Chinese bicycle trade show videos on Youtube and see all the products they have access to that we don't. They're about to take over bikes the same way they took over cars. More technologically advanced than any automobile made over here. China spends major money on research and development - more money than the US spends. Chinese factories can design a product and have the prototype in your hand in less time than an American factory takes to answer your email.

Cool, that is neat. That had to have been fun getting to visit their shop I heard it was quite nice.

Curious why you are so confident that other companies are doing it? Factory Five was in China so we can take them out of this equation.

My mindset needs an upgrade? For what? You are acting as if all these companies are simply just middlemen and that is not the case. China is very capable but to say that companies are just middlemen and don't do their own design work is just crazy. Just because China can do something doesn't mean that is always the case. I can get quite quick emails from some American companies and slow emails from other countries as well. I can get fast or slow anything anywhere if I want. Being quick at email or not quick doesn't really have much of a thing. Everyone expects everything to be ridiculously fast and you have to be constantly connected. I get call sometimes "did you get that text I just sent you" "I sent it a minute ago how could you not have responded?"...

China spends more on R+D than why so many stolen products? Why so much need for outright theft? If they are so great why all of that, why so many poor labor practices? I know there are legit companies doing legit things but if the industry over there is all so good and so much better why the need to be terrible as well? If I could design my own products so well and make it of quality and all of that stuff you want to be the case, why isn't that the case.

Yes they had an incredible shop. One of the best I've been to in the world. Good decor, cool bikes, cool products. It was in a former industrial compound that had been converted to hip art studios and retail. And their local China prices were lower than their international prices.

Actually you really can't. As you recall from back in April - because I'm sure you read the same news articles as the rest of us - there were tons of interviews in the news of American small business owners who imported their products from China (i.e. similar to Velo Orange). A lot of these business owners were forced to call around US factories to try to replace their Chinese factories. In the interviews they said America factories were too slow in production, far more expensive, and worst of all the production was lower quality. In the end most of the small businesses ended up still buying from China and absorbing the tariff themselves. Which as you know, Trump chickened out and now sits at around 30%. Still not a small number.

https://www.wired.com/story/tariffs-small-businesses-why-make-things-in-china/

In fact far from getting a boost from the anti-China tariffs, US domestic manufacturing has actually continuously contracted for the past nine straight months. Yikes. One would have thought given everything from China is now more expensive, US manufacturers would have been better able to compete. The reality is that cost was just part of the issue. The other important part is that the Chinese are simply better at it. Better, faster output, technologically more advanced production facilities, and all while still being cheaper. How do you compete against that?

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-...er-2025-12-01/


It's an outdated mindset. Google returns whatever you search for. If you spend most of your time searching for economical household products, then Google will return a lot of cheap stuff, including of course clones. There's tons of high end stuff coming out of China if that's what you want to search for and buy.

They make the majority of the world's stuff. Cheap stuff, good stuff, all the stuff.

I can I wasn't talking about making stuff in U.S. factories but getting responses from people.

How is it an outdated mindset when it is still actively happening? This doesn't require google, just search on "ae" or probably even taobao same deal.

This is not saying that China is not also making good stuff as well I know they are, I know they are capable. But my point is if they are so capable and so great at everything as you are stating why the need to have so many fake products. It is not an outdated mindset it is the truth, in a previous thread you even linked to one of those items. This is not make believe or I am on internet archive and searching back in the 90s this is live right now.

If China were so great labor practices and IP protection would be better. You don't need fakes and knockoffs if your own R+D and production capabilities are so great. And again I am not saying China doesn't make some decent stuff and doesn't have that capability so please do not keep getting it wrong but to truly be great you wouldn't need all the other stuff!

Probably because they like money.

Just because someone sells you a Rolex doesn't mean they can't rob you at the same time. There's more than one way to make money. They are taking advantage of all the ways.

You remember when America stole Panama from Colombia in order to build the canal. Everyone loves money, Americans and Chinese both at the forefront of the world in this characteristic.

And how about that Australian company which is selling the stem? They are also stealing? I predict in the coming years the stealing will shift the other way. The Chinese will have great designs and the west will steal.

Here's one of the articles I was talking about.
https://www.wired.com/story/tariffs-small-businesses-why-make-things-in-china/

You can still make money and not screw people over and steal! There is just simply no need for that if you are so great.

I am not buying a Rolex. My phone gives me the time and can make calls and I can use it to listen to music, watch videos and tune a bike (SRAM AXS or Shimano Di2). Show me a Rolex that can do that? However I am also not saying that a company that makes products of their own and doesn't steal them also cannot do wrong here.

Well this thread quickly devolved.

Dan

This thread belongs in the politics section

Reminds me of the dura ace/ ultegra stems.

.................. quillbots at play