so i'm making some decisions regarding a custom bike i'm having built up, and the only one i'm really clueless on is this. anyone care to share some insight into why i should choose one vs the other?

no comment (too many people are opinionated on this one) but if you DO decide to do threadless, please get a thompson stem. they are beautiful.

The frame I'm building has a threaded headset, and fork, and I'm using a threaded to threadless adapter. Seems like it will work great.

They both seem to work great though. I'd just pick whatever you like better.

-Plink-

well.
For me when it comes to stems it is ALL about the open face.
I have many pairs of bars that I love to switch out very often.
I might be wrong, but they do not make very many open face stems for threaded headsets.
And while I prefer threaded aesthetically, to a very great extent actually, the annoyance of taping and retaping bars whenever I want to change them out is too great.

ive only ridden threaded, so i dont know much about threadless.

I too am having a custom frame built just-now and, while I have always used threaded in the past, I am having this one built threadless for a few reasons:

- much larger choice of stems
- much larger choice of headsets
- I find the threadless design to be much more efficient and logical, ie the stem clamps straight onto the fork, no fu#king around with headset wrenches and expanding bolts
- I also happen to like the modern aesthetic they have

there are a good amount of pop-top threaded stems, but they generally lack the aesthetic appeal that people who like threaded go for.

for example:

If I were paying good money for a custom bike, I'd use threadless with a 1 1/8" setup. You'll have more options into the future, and a stiffer and lighter front end than 1" threaded.

i like threaded it is easier to change bar height.

This characteristic (and aesthetics, which is subjective) are the only ones that beat the threadless system. Threadless is superior in every way except these two.

You can adjust a threadless system by about 1 cm; however it looks bad when you move it down and put the spacers on top of the stem.

i've only ridden threadless on my ss mountain bike. so i can't say that i've had much experience in the threadless track bike area. unless you're really worried about weight or have problems adjusting threaded, then i think it all lies on the asthetics. i personally prefer threaded, because i think it passes better to the smaller tubing of steel frames (i also prefer steel). i guess if the frame was an aluminum w/larger tubing then a threadless might look better.
i don't have any problems with headset adjustment (of course threaded takes a bit longer to dis- and reassemble, but who cares). and as far as bar change goes, i have a diffent stems for my drops and bullhorns, so its actually faster than changing bars on a threadless, only one bolt and the bar angle is already set...

I'll second Filtersweep's suggestion -- if it were to be custom, threadless would be my choice. But...

Aesthetically, it depends. I have a threadless set-up now and I love it. If I decide to build up another bike, it might be threaded, since I may be building it in a certain aesthetic and style (more old school) and for its use: track only.

My threadless set-up is 1". To match the slimmer tubing of a my steel frame, I managed to find a Salsa SUL stem that fits the paint job as well.

Here are some photos of my set-up:

chirs king makes both, so whichever.

i have a threadless on my old beater soma and threaded on my nice bike.

At Kogswell, we feel that the only smart choice is choice itself.

We make lugged and TIG'd frames w/ head tubes that fit 1 1/8" headsets. And we supply them w/ headtube reducers that allow a 1" headset to be insalled. Then to make it all work, we offer 1" threaded and 1 1/8" threadless forks.

The interesting thing is that customers do indeed choose. We thought that 1" threaded would be more popular, but it isn't.

There are only a handful of head lugs w/ that dimension. But they are available. And Waterford has a set if you haven't picked a builder yet and you want lugged construction. And there are lots of nicely machined head tubes available for TIG'd constuctions.

Our P model uses lugs from Kirk Pacenti which are sized for 1" headsets. So for that frame, we offer 1" threaded and 1" threadless forks.

Finally, we also stock the YST GeForce headset. Its design allows for either threadless and quill stems to used.

Jobst Brandt, author of The Bicycle Wheel and a mechanical engineer, says a threadless set up is stiffer. I'll take his word for it, but think the mechanical advantage must be minute.

I like threaded for the aesthetics, personally. As mentioned the lack of an open face plate is a big drawback if you like to change your bars a lot. But I have a feeling most people don't often switch bars.

Not to derail the thread, but doesn't anyone know of any good open face threaded stems? The only ones I can think of are the crappily made riser stems on entry-level comfort bikes. I've never seen one that had welds that didn't look like they were done by a third grader, a la the Dimension stem INK posted above.

I ran across these sweet threadless stems yesterday--just click on "stems" https://jonnycycles.com/

I like both Cinelli's Frog:



and TTT's Mutant Classic:



I have the Mutant Classic and I'm quite fond of it.

m.

Those are both pretty nice! Best of both worlds. Cause when you need to raise your stem and you can't, it sucks pretty bad. My wife was ready to return her IRO cause she couldn't raise the stem, and her back was killing her...

Which you can offset with a stem that rises up - aesthetically, not as pretty but raised threaded stems aren't all that pretty either.

You can also get an adjustable threadless stem for not too much green.

That's a shame.

Why not get another fork and start over?

Or, use a YST GeForce headset and a long quill stem?

There are options, people!!!

Did you tell Tony what the problem was?

I would think threaded would give you the most options, as it allows you to use a threadless adapter if you really want to use your threadless stem.

No! It all worked out without a problem (after 2 stems, flipped and re-flipped and flipping out), but I'm just saying, a threaded headset would have made the adjustments easier. And those adjustable stems are kinda ugly.

A threaded headset with a stem with easy bar removal is the way to go, in my opinion. Although, I don't actually have one...

I actually had that exact stem on one of my bikes for a while.
I recently found the same one only pitched downward, so I changed it out for that, but it's still pretty ugly.

alright, i've decided to go with threaded since the main difference seems to be aesthetics, and i strongly prefer the more classic threaded look.

and for the record, i'm getting a circle a. can't wait!