Salsa used to make a steel stem called the CroMoto, which was a nice quill chromoly stem with faceplate. It looked good and was available in a variety of angles/lengths. But then, as with so many good things in the marketplace, production was abruptly ceased. Worse is better. I guess Salsa made them was in 2010, but that was followed almost immediately by a recall, citing risk of catastrophic failure, and all the stems were destroyed (except perhaps for those owned by people with nothing to live for). You might be able to find a used one from earlier batches if you really wanted to.
On the other hand, regarding faceplate stem designs in general, Jan Heine makes a good point in a recent post on his blog<http://janheine.wordpress.com/2012/01/17/inserting-a-handlebar-into-a-stem/>, describing some often-overlooked disadvantages of faceplate stems. For example, they do not contact the bar evenly, and so add hotspots to the already knurled aluminum of a presumably lightweight handlebar, among other drawbacks. Matt On Tuesday, May 28, 2013 8:09:04 AM UTC-4, Michael Hechmer wrote: > > As I contemplate either simply getting a taller stem or Alba bars & stem > for my wife's bike I ask myself why doesn't someone make a stem that > combines the best of quill & ahead stems? Why can't I have a quill stem > with a removable faceplate that would allow me to try a different stem > without removing the beautiful tape I just put on the bike to start the > season? Not to mention all the brake and derailler cables hung from the > bars. > > Michael > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en-US. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
