Originally Posted by
Robvolz
I've never even played on on TV.
My thought process is: Aluminum is a soft material and could easily rip out. Water Bottles brackets us rivets in aluminum bike frames so why not?
I get your response, worried that a small hole could cost the stem its integrity, but rivets do come in more than one size and I was thinking rather small.
Robert
The often described failure mode of an Al tube (hollow stem in this case) is one of fatigue cracks continuing to grow quickly. Not a pulling through of a nut or fastener (rims are one exception to this, nipple pull throughs are quite heard of). If I have my material qualities right this is the difference between yield strength and fatigue limits for any one material. A very small stress that is well below the yield strength of the Al will lead to a failure in a limited number of stress cycles. Especially so is a focus of the stress is in play (rough edges, threads, sharp corners). Andy