Does anyone know of a good source for 21.15" quill stems? Mine has a bit too much forward reach and a bit too low, and I am looking for an alternative. I am aware of the two that Harris Cyclery carry.

It is for a '73 World Voyageur that I am pretty darn certain is 21.15" (don't have my micrometer handy), but if someone knows otherwise, please let me know.

EDIT: OF COURSE I MEANT 21.15mm -- TOO MANY SLEEPLESS NIGHTS WITH A NEWBORN

Thanks in advance,
Chris

eBay or trade with somebody...maybe find a garage sale junker you can salvage just the stem from. I'd be surprised if you can find any with a taller than average quill, there just ain't that many out there to choose from. What reach are you looking for?

In that 22.2mm is the standard (commonly called 1" - which it is not - any more than a .38 caliber revolver is actually .38 of an inch (it's .357 or 9mm)) So before you go hunting for these - by someone who can't measure - 21.15mm stems - get the calipers and check again. Then check other quills as well. I'll bet you it's the same as the 1" is the same as the 22.2mm.

Schwinn as well as several others (Ross, Windsor and Nishiki come to mind) used a .833" quill stem that we metric-minded translate to 21.1mm. It was one of the "standards" for them for a while, also showed up on department store bikes and some other bike-boom Japanese brands, but got left in the past when JP adopted the 22.2 standard. You'll find better results searching for those stems using the "inch" ( .833") designation as well as the metric translation.

Plus, it was a BMX standard for a while also.

jim

Buy a 22.2mm Nitto Technomic and use a belt sander or lathe to take material off the radius to get it down to 21.1. It doesn't take much work since you're talking about just a little over half a millimeter off the radius. That was the suggestion from the owner of my LBS, and he's been around the block a few times.

Although fork steerer tubes for bikes using both 21.1 and 22.2 stems had a 1" (25.4mm) O.D., the steerers on forks using 21.1 stems had a thicker wall thickness.

Thanks Stan, great suggestion! I've been tryimg without success to fimd a -833" stem for my horrible Huffy MTB frame over here in the UK - even old BMX stems in this size are silly money and I don't want to spend much on such a junker. Just building it for fun really as it's so grotesque it's beautiful - front droputs are squashed together fork tubes, rear dropout slots look like they've been cut with pinking shears and the bit in between is even worse! Was given it as a lump of solid rust because it had sat for a year in the salt air of Dover and it took a lot of muscle to salvage. Had to cut the stem out of the forks, however the frame tubes are so thick & heavy that the only rust was external surface rust on the scratches. After stripping to bare metal. Waxoyl treatment of tubes & gloss black enamel respray it looks smarter than new. Have experience of "precision sanding" as I reduced a carbon seat pillar from 27.2mm to 27.0 mm and it's a perfect fit - took four hours and a micrometer though!

Thanks for the suggestions all. I like the belt sander / lathe option, as the 22.2 mm stems seem to be available to a much larger degree in a variety of heights and reaches. I have been searching the bay for a while to no avail.

I have a few - both Schwinn (GB) and Japanese. I just put a SR a in my stem box a couple of days ago. It was probably a 80mm reach and average height (like 80-90mm). If you want it, pm me and we'll work something out.

I similarly have a couple of .833 stems around to spare. I can measure reach and height if you need me to.

Neal

Thanks Noah, but I'm looking for something with more height.

Neal, that is mighty kind of you. If you happen to have one 10+ inches in height, and no more than 3 inches in reach, just let me know the price. I was just across the river from Brookline in Cambridge 2 weeks ago -- my timing is always off.

Chris