Robvolz 

I noticed in a lot of pictures of classic Italian bicycles, people will put a ribbon of the Italian tricolor stickers around the vertical part of their stems. I wondered if this was supposed to stop a stem from slamming into the fork tube, but then I thought who doesn’t have one hand on their stem as they’re loosening it anyway?

Was just this a fashionable thing because Some racer started doing it and it caught on?

Robvolz 

Moderators, I’m an idiot. Can you please move this not into sales with just Classic and vintage? Thank you.

Edit: Thread moved by moderators

merziac

That banding was from the factory on the older 3t Record stems, that being just one of the very cool features of these stems.

merziac

Hit the red exclamation point on the left of your post.

smontanaro 

And on their bars.

steelbikeguy

fwiw, an example in better condition.....





It would be interesting to learn if anyone besides 3ttt was doing this.
The urge to adorn parts with national or Olympic or world champion colors is fairly strong, and it does add a bit of extra flair to routine parts. ... until it starts looking worn and shabby.

Steve in Peoria

bulgie 

Some people do add that sticker, like if the old one fell off

Here's and adjustable I just restored, and the decal I removed for polishing the stem.




Hey cogmoscenti, should this adjustable stem also have the triangular sticker on top by the handlebar clamp? There was no remnant of one ever having been there, on mine.

Mark B

smontanaro 

Nice work Mark!


Velobase suggests at least some have that sticker:

bulgie 

Thanks buddy. I forget where I got this repro decal, probably one of the usual suspects (Cyclomondo, Velocals et al.), but it came with the triangle too so I might as well add it.
I have two of these adjustables, identical except for the bolts, and one says Ambrosio. I'll probably keep the Ambrosio and sell the 3ttt.

Did you all know this stem can also be used as a "riser"? Just flip the quill part 180° like so:



This lets me keep riding my 1961 Bianchi Specialissima even though it's now "too small" since I've gotten old, fat and inflexible. The older Ambrosio version is on that bike.

-mb

Kabuki12

On my ItalVega the stem was badly oxidized and there was no way to save the original decals so I replaced them after polishing

big chainring 

Rumor back in the day was that Greg Lemond had a "$" dollar sign sticker on his stem.

bulgie 

Yes, that was when he was a junior and an amateur but with big plans to turn pro right after the '80 Olympics. He might have accelerated that plan when the US boycotted the Oly's in Russia due to their invasion of Afghanistan. I forget exactly when he turned pro but he was still pretty young. I think he never did ride as a Senior amateur, went right from Juniors to Pros. Someone here will know the whole story...

Mark B