Is there such a thing? Who has what and what works?

My love for the Cinelli Alter has extinguished: I saw two this week that had broken in the same place...

Silver and shiny and NOT THE LEWELLEN THAT COST LIKE 300 bones.

How 'bout the Nitto track?


Also... you saw broken Cinelli Alters? Where'd they break?

Any chance you could get your paws on a faceplate or two for me? I'd love to bring my otherwise functional Alter back to life!

I'll ask the guy I met who had the problem. The screw broke the main portion of it: cracked it off.

And unless someone comes up with a better option than that, I'm buying that right away.

Those are going ot give you a fair amount of rise to the bars. Can they be had with less rise, i.e. negative angle. If so, count me in as well.

Flip the stem over! That's negative rise for you!

From Business Cycles:

Nitto CT-80
(Threadless fillet-brazed cromoly steel track stem for 1.125" threadless forks. 0°. Chrome plated)
100, 110 or 120 mm. for 25.4 handlebars - $114.50
100, 110 or 120 mm. for 31.8 handlebars - $114.50

If you flip a 0° stem, it's still 0°

One thing to note: "track specific" threadless stems really don't exist. If you look at what the pros are using, you will see that they are opting for regular road stems with plenty of rise (I assume since most of these riders are using smallish frames and use the rise to compensate). The stems with negative rise are pieces of nostalgia for those who liked the look of older quill stems.

Regardless, there are some who still like and use these negative rise threadless stems, but most are custom jobs. I personally like the look and functionality of some negative rise, but not too much.

For off the shelf stems, the one that comes to mind is the Cinelli Grammo Titanium:



This stem has a 72degree angle (-18 rise) which should put it parallel to the TT. If you are a big guy I would be hestitant to use it because the one bolt clamp is not very convincing. (I have also heard of this stem snapping on people.) It is beautiful to hold and look at, though.

I have one (120mm length). I also have a regular ITM road stem I plan to use with my custom track bike. The frame is currenlty at the paint shop, so I won't get it for another week or so.

If you want to try it out, I can mail it to you to see if you like it. But, mine is for 1" threadless, and I believe your custom frame is 1 1/8".

MSRP: $190-270. On eBay: $60-120.

The other stock threadless stems (like the Nitto posted above) with the classic "track" look have either 0 rise or -10 rise. Might as well get a cheap road stem off eBay with the same rise and save some cash.

Then you have the custom jobs. Bill Holland, Seven Cycles and a few others make custom titanium stem from $275-375. And again others using Chromoly with polished lugs are about the same.

I snagged a custom Seven Cycles titanium stem off eBay for $129. I saw another go for only only $95.



The Seven Cycles stem is for 1 1/8" steerers and has a -17 rise. And was made for 31.8 bars. I am planning to use this stem for another project.

A titanium stem would look real daft with your custom frame. Strong and light. But, even at eBay still very pricey.

A bit ugly but I would still get one if there was a US distributor

CKT Sloping Track Stem
https://www.trackcycling.co.uk/shop/detail.php?id=219

What you may have seen are the fairly high-rise stems on BT frames (or Kogas -- same bike, different paint). BT's have a very short head tube so you need a good bit of rise on the stem. The frame takes a standard 1" stem, so you just look for an MTB stem that has the right dimensions, and it'll fit 25.4 track bars as well. Those bikes have particular stem needs -- most other track bikes don't need such a high rise on the stem.

If you want a custom stem, you can get a lot of manufacturers who will make them for reasonable prices. Call John Dacey at www.businesscycles.com about a fillet-brazed steel Landshark stem custom to your dimensions. He made one for me for about $125. Salsa used to make the nicest custom track stems out there, but I've heard they discontinued the custom stem business. Builders such as Strong and Waterford regularly make custom steel stems, and you should be able to get one like you want from Dave Kirk (www.kirkframeworks.com) as well. David is the best -- he used to be the steel frame builder for Serotta and does absolutely magnificent work.

The Nitto stems pictured above are nice, and very reasonably priced, if the measurements work for you. There isn't much flexibility in dimensions. There's also the Deda Pista stem, which has a pretty good drop and works with 31.8 mm oversize bars. The only drawback to the Deda is that it's relatively light aluminum with Ti bolts -- you be the judge whether you need a super-strong steel stem (like the Nitto) or do fine with an aluminum one.

the deda pista newton is a track-specific stem.

no - it's -0°

t

These look decent. https://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...category=42333

Anyone know of any good short stems? I just got a set of nice Mavic bullhorns, but with my current stem at 120mm I am WAY too stretched out now. Even something as short as a bmx block stem would be good, but so far everything looks so ugly. chrome or carbon would be ideal, and a tiny bit of negative rise would look nice. Any suggestions?

My Pista came with a 107 degree stem, which made it level, and which I flipped over to get some rise.
Even with the rise, my bullhorns come out perfectly level with the saddle.
I like it.
Give me a couple of months, and I might return it to its original position and ride it the way Bianchi designed it.

DIMENSIONS stem DE best!

i saw the nitto CT80 in person at kenwood cyclery here in minneapolis the other day...they are truly a thing of beauty, if you can get past the 0 degree thing. if they made that stem with the same drop as the quills, it would be on my bike for sure.

lots of threadless stems have ugly welding marks. the nitto doesn't, of course. i would want something with *at least* a 15 degree drop so that you're close to parallel to the top tube.

There is a LBS here that has a used alters in a bin for like $30. As fugly as it is, I thought of you guys. If you need some recon let me know. PM me

Cynikal - let me know. PM me if you need to. Thanks a lot!

WK: When do we see the Thyciline (sp?)?

adjustable drop threadless stem (+35* to -40*):
https://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...139801668&rd=1

+25 / -25: https://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...139807619&rd=1

Has anyone had luck shimming the Nitto track stem onto a 1 inch steerer? Would like this very much on my Pista, however it's set up for a 1.125. If you made it work, what kind of shim did you use? I'm open to all suggestions except a torn Bud can.

Thanks.

deda is steep.

Have you checked out Chuck's Bikes? They had a Titec 1" threadless 15 degree negative rise 90mm stem for $5. I got a grey one that doesn't look too bad and works good for me with bullhorns. I wanted the 0 degree chrome one actually but they were out.