> That whole process can get pretty fiddly, but then so can unwrapping > bars and removing levers in order to try a different stem. With modern > mountain bike stems, and increasingly common road setups, it's easy to > swap between stems.
Fiddly and an aesthetic nightmare. Most (all? - not sure) headset makers do not make stems and vice versa. My custom Oswald with threadless fork has a Ti King headset. Before I had a custom stem made, it had a silver Thomson stem. King does not make Ti spacers. So I wound up using the Thomson spacers which did not match the headset. Not a complete aesthetic nightmare, but not optimal. It gets even worse if you use stems and headsets by other manufacturers who do not make spacers. You wind up with three different colors in one of the more prominent parts of the bike. Not a problem if the bike is a ratty old GT. Looks are certainly an issue when you fork out the big bucks for a Rivendell, Velo-Orange or custom steel bike. As a result, most people who buy these bikes are very grateful Nitto continues to make threaded stems with modern alloys and to high tolerances possible with the new forging machinery. > It's a very simple matter to swap stems on that bike, and it > gets done often. It has air springs on each end, so at the most we > swap out saddles, stems, pedals and adjust the air pressure and it's > good to go. This is a very common practice. Seems to me you could accomplish the same just as well by adjusting a threaded stem up or down and simply rotating the angle of the bars to meet the riders' preferences. If you are changing the bars as well as the stem, the open face of most threadless stems speeds the task somewhat. Unless the bike is fixed gear, however, it really is not so easy to swap bars. Brake levers are going to be in different positions on the bars, meaning at best you are going to have extra brake cable to deal with. If you are switching from Albatross to drops, you most likely will have to replace the brake cable as the existing cable will not be long enough, and, depending on the levers, may not use the same cable end. And that is assuming you are using non-aero levers that do not route the cable under the tape. So again, it seems to me we are back to a tie in usefullness between the two. I concur that there are many beautiful custom threadless stems. As I have said multiple times here, the custom threadless Jonnycycles made for my Oswald is very lovely. When it comes to off the shelf, however, Nitto is a very special product at a price that is hard to beat. GP has had a tight relationship with Nitto since the Bridgestone era. Under the circumstances, I think his decision to stay with threadless makes a lot of sense. On Dec 24, 12:06 am, Atlantean <softlysoftlycatcheemon...@gmail.com> wrote: > I'm not a fan of the 7 shaped stem, and I really really don't like the > looks of track stems. A track stem and an Albatross bar? I don't think > so. > > The Atlantis comes with 15mm of spacers (I think) under the top nut. I > couild have shortened the steer tube up by that much and that might > have lowered the Albatross bar enough, but since the stem I was using > (an old Cinelli 13cm with a home brewed shim) was far from ideal, I > was not willing to make such a committment for an experiment. Bike > shop mechanics cut steer tubes of all description routinely, by the > way. Anyway, if that same frame had come with a threadless fork, it > would have been very easy to try the lowest postion available before > cutting the fork. People do this all the time with mountain bike > builds. Yes, it looks pretty funny with spacers on top of the stem, > but once the position is sorted out after a few rides, it's easy to > cut the steer tube to the proper length. There is nothing difficult > about shuffling spacers around, either. You can't get them backwards > or upside down. They come in many different lengths, too, so once the > proper dimension is determined, it is possible to use one spacer of > the proper length in most cases. That looks pretty tidy. > > That whole process can get pretty fiddly, but then so can unwrapping > bars and removing levers in order to try a different stem. With modern > mountain bike stems, and increasingly common road setups, it's easy to > swap between stems. Takes a couple of minutes. We have a guest bike, > an old GT dually, that several people ride over the course of a > season. It's a very simple matter to swap stems on that bike, and it > gets done often. It has air springs on each end, so at the most we > swap out saddles, stems, pedals and adjust the air pressure and it's > good to go. This is a very common practice. > > On Dec 23, 10:07 pm, John McMurry <johnmcmu...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > > On Dec 23, 8:18 pm, Atlantean <softlysoftlycatcheemon...@gmail.com> > > wrote: > > > > I removed an Albatross bar from my Atlantis even though I liked it a > > > lot, simply because I could not get it low enough! > > > A stem like this stem ought to help that situation: > > >http://www.businesscycles.com/tstem-nitto.htm > > > > Imagine that! It > > > would have been easy with a threadless fork. > > > How would've it been easier to lower the bars with a threadless fork? > > > > Actually, I have > > > considered getting a custom fork for that bike, and painting it to > > > match the head tube. > > > That stem, while not exactly cheap, is a whole lot cheaper than a > > custom fork, if the purpose is to get the bars low. > > > Though, if that's the purpose, I bet there's a better bar for your > > ride. > > > John McMurry > > Burlington, VT- Hide quoted text - > > - Show quoted text - --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
