You asked this in the other post, I decided to answer it here because your questions were about this Sekai. And I didn't want to hijack the other thread.
Originally Posted by
tpadul
Can you show me some photos of how you raised up your handlebars? You had commented on my new 1984 Sekai 5000 racing bike I just picked up I think and I'm struggling with the drop handlebars, I really don't like them and will be switching them out on my other bikes I have but now that I found this vintage 1984 Sekai racing bike I do want to keep the drops on the bike but until I fully lose at least 100 pounds I want to do something to make riding this racing bike more comfortable for me, I saw some photos on this site somewhere where someone had some kind of handlebar extensions placed of the top of the drop bars but I don't know what they are called. The Sekai came with Aerobars clipped on but those don't help as you are really bending down with the Aero bars and I want to find something that I can temporarily put onto the top of the drop bars that will allow me to sit in a more upright position until I am at a much more healthy weight. Any suggestions with photos would be most appreciative. I don't know what the extensions are called that I saw in some photo but they were clipped/bolted onto the top of the drop handlebar. Do you know what these are? I just wish the quill stems were longer so I could raise that up a bit higher, and I have seem quill stem extenders for mountain bikes but I don't know if that would even work on the Cinelli quill stem that is on my Sekai.
You have a quill stem with a threaded fork on the Sekai (this is the older style). When I said not to have them cut the steer tube, this was intended for a threadless fork. Apples and oranges. (I think you know the following, but I typed it out already and decided not to delete it) If you want to raise the handlebars on the Sekai, you need to loosen the bolt at the top of the quill stem (only a few turns, don't unscrew the entire bolt), either it will drop down or you will need to tap it
LIGHTLY with a hammer. Then the bolt will drop down and the stem should be loose. You can raise it to the minimum insertion mark. Screw the bolt until slighly snug, align the stem with the front wheel, then tighten the bolt.
If the handlebars are not high enough, you have a few options, 1) there is a stem by Nitto that is extra long
Nitto stem, this is about $50, or 2) you can use a quill stem adapter, this will make your steerer threadless compatible so you can use a standard threadless stem (
dimension quill stem adapter), now you can use a lot of different threadless stems, I like the dimension because it is longer than other stem adapters. This stem adapter should work in place of the Cinelli stem. I use the threadless adapter on a old Waterford bike, I like the threadless adapter because I can uses stems that have a faceplate which makes it easier to change stems or handlebars.
The aerobars appear to be some version of the profile design airstrykes, just loosen a couple of bolts on the clamps to the handlebars and rotate the aerobars until the bottom of the bars is level with the ground, you can play with it from there. The arm rests for the aerobars don't appear to have pads, you can get replacements from
profile design, you can figure out which pads will work best for your arm rests.
I hope this answers your questions. Oh, I never would call your or any of my bikes a racing bike, I call this style road bikes, that's because there are road racing bikes, mountain racing bikes, cyclecross racing bike, bmx racing bikes, etc...