Titanium Stoker Stem
 

Hi All, thought I would share my experience with you for usually a little considered piece of tandem hardware - The Stoker Stem. I knew what I wanted, a mix of stems I have had with Tandems from Jack Taylor and George Longstaff, alas, the Taylors are no longer around and Longstaffs no longer build Stoker stems.
D.Man***** from another thread mentioned he was having a Titanium stoker stem manufactured by XACD in China and the process he went through. Having dealt with the Chinese before, I new patience was the order of the day. Once I contacted Porter at XACD and sent him a rough sketch with dimensions, he then sent a full CAD drawing for my approval. Several drawings later and the last one I printed out at a 1:1 scale, made a cardboard template to try for size, fit, I approved the drawing, paid my money ( cheap in comparison to whats available off the shelf) and then waited, what a surprise when only five days later it arrived on my doorstep. The craftsmanship is second to none as you can see from the photos, really pleased and its fits and looks like I wanted it to.
In the photos, I have "Mocked" the build up before a complete strip down, soda blast and repaint. Im just waiting on the XShifter to be ready so I can drill the frame and set it up before paint.

That's a lovely custom piece. What's up with the sanded away paint sections on the frame? Are you going to be attaching cable stops or brake line guides?

I like the quality of the Cannondales welds on the main frame, head tube, seat tubes, boom tube etc, but don't like the quality or appearance of the so called "Braze on" bits, looks like pigeon ****e. So I removed them all with the intention of running the gear cables down the lateral tube….that was until I came across the XShifter. I now only have to run the rear brake cable which will be bare cable along the top tube, with a cable stop at each end and a guide in the centre. I will in all likely hood just tickle the main joints up before painting so they are nice and smooth.

Thinking of ordering one. What did it cost you? How much was shipping?

Can you post a snap of the handlebar clamp?

We had a custom stem made for us by DaVinci Tandems. It's nearly half the weight of the adjustable stoker stem it replaced

The cost was $125 plus shipping and paypal charges


The handlebar stem is a Hope AM 35mm 20 degree, I'll post a photo when I get back home in a couple of days

My Ti guys will also do any custom stem you can pm for their contact info.