At 12:39 PM 05/11/2008 -0800, Kirke Campbell wrote:
>I sent this out the other day with no replies. Maybe it didnt work? I am re
>ally interested getting some insight.
>
>All this talk of steel cottered v. aluminum cotterless cranks made me start
> pondering stems and handlebars.
>I
>think, based on catalogues I have seen, that Cinelli was making steel
>bars and stems up until the late 1970s. I know now that these steel
>stems are highly sought after, but how common was it to use a steel
>stem after the arrival of aluminum versions? Why equip a bike with
>aluminum rims and cranks, but a steel bar/stem combo? Was is it just
>tradition? Conventional wisdom?
>Please discuss. Who made the first aluminum stems/bars? When did the switch
> begin? What are the pros/cons of each?
Great topic. Kirke. I'm sure I would have seen it earlier.
Back in the day (1950s) I bought a Claud Butler which had an aluminum Pivo stem. I'm a bit fuzzy on whether the bars were steel or aluminum. At the time the best stems were chromes steel GB ones and aluminum ones were considered "weak" and "flexible". Knowing what I know now, I'm sure a solid or thick-walled aluminum stem would be just as strong as a thin-walled steel one. Of course, at he time I was not yet an engineer and didn't know about the finite fatigue life of aluminum, but perhaps that was what the recommendations for steel were based on. Anyway, I ended up replacing the Pivo stem with a chromed steel GB stem because it was "cooler".
Of course, today steel stems are rare unless they're custom KOF units. I've even drilled out aluminum stems in a dumb effort to save weight (or just because I could). All my bikes in the last 50 years have had aluminum bars. I've only seen steel bars on a few rare track bikes. When you think about it, the stem has to take all the stress and strain the handlebars do, but in a shorter length. From this alone, I would think it has to have a stronger cross-section than the handlebars. I think a steel stem of appropriate section would be preferable to an aluminum one of equal strength for the same reason we like steel frames better than aluminum ones. Of course, I expect steel stems went out of fashion bbefore steel frames did for exactly the same reason.
John Betmanis
Woodstock, Ontario
Canada