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MTB handlebar stem on Vintage road bike

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MTB handlebar stem on Vintage road bike

Old 01-01-17, 11:54 AM
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Spookytooth22
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MTB handlebar stem on Vintage road bike

Not sure about posting here but maybe someone can link me to a thread that will help. Anyway, raced triathlons back in the day (30 years ago), had a 1987 Centurion Ironman which I installed Scott DH aero bars on. In order to get in what then was a proper aero position we put mtb handlebar stems on. After I quit riding the bike I donated the bike to charity (regrettable now). Fast forward to today, I recently purchased the same bike on Ebay, searched high and low for the Scott DH bars (which I finally found) and now am in the process of making this into the bike I had. My question is, does anyone recall the mtb stems used back then (trying to make the bike as original vintage as possible) and if not, could a regular modern stem be installed and work safely?
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Old 01-01-17, 06:02 PM
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So I've looked at that bike on Google, and I've looked at the Scott bars on Google, and in none of the dozens of pictures of various set ups with Scott bars do I see a stem in use that I would call an MTB stem. What exactly are you in search of? MTB stems "usually" have a 25.4mm bar clamp diameter, and are also 25.4mm in diam at the insertion into the headset. They also usually angle upward from the headset at around 30*. Road stems of the same era had a 26mm (usually) clamp diam. and were 22.2mm in diam at the insertion into the headset. They usually had zero rise to the horizontal portion and often had an appreciable amount of negative angle to the horizontal portion. Any stem with the proper diameters to fit your headset and the handlebars will work. Modern stems are mostly "threadless" and not compatible with the "quill" stem your Centurion needs but quill stems are still made and can be obtained new, but any bike co-op will have a large carton box full of legacy quill stems in all kinds of shapes and styles. FWIW.
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Old 01-01-17, 09:22 PM
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Thank you for reply and you supplied some helpful info. I thought we were being cutting edge back in the day by using the MTB stems (my girlfriend at the time was a pro triathlete so we were pretty privy as to the latest and greatest). As you mentioned, your search through Google held no examples. I did come across a few, though not specific Scott DH bars, they are still aero bars. Anyway, I will use the info you provided and see what I can come up with. Thank you again.
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Old 03-24-18, 08:46 AM
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Ok, so those up-angled stems are used to raise the aero bars so the pads are near the saddle height.
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Old 03-24-18, 10:40 AM
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Originally Posted by Road Fan
Ok, so those up-angled stems are used to raise the aero bars so the pads are near the saddle height.
The walking thread.

Correct, however not everyone needed them. I didn't back then and still don't. Here's my rig for 2018.
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