[CR]Beautiful rare valuable stem stuck in crap bike.

(Example: Production Builders)

To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
From: "Bianca Pratorius" <biankita@comcast.net>
Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2007 16:55:04 -0400
Subject: [CR]Beautiful rare valuable stem stuck in crap bike.

A local bike shop owner wants to gift me a TTT pantographed Colnago stem in the perfect 10 cm size that I use. The pantographing seems unusual in that it is a shade deeper into the aluminum surface. The stem is stuck in one of those crack addict's bikes. This one is an old ALAN that has a crack in the headtube, part of the seat lug cracked off on the tightening fixture, a crack in the downtube, a bent crank, rusted and corroded Zeus brakes, etc. The only things worth saving are the SR headset and the stem. Wouldn't you know it, some jerk apparently hammered the wrong size stem into the steerer tube? We have had it soaking in every kind of thing for two days and we can't even turn it one bit no less get it out. I tried sticking a solid metal rod into the fork from underneath and tapping it to break the stem loose. Even that won't work. Short of cutting the head tube and then cutting the fork in half what might be done. The shop owner says a torch, but this qualifies as a special case because the stem is aluminum and so is the pitifull frame.

Garth Libre in Miami Fl USA