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ritchey wcs chicane stem
as self-appointed president of the luddite society (velocipedinal branch), aside from the many other things i am prone to moan about, i occasionally like to bemoan the passing of the quill stem. brought about by the introduction of the a-headset, a situation i blame entirely on the offroad community, in my humble opinion, there has yet to be an example of the a-head stem that equals the aesthetic appeal of a cinelli xe quill stem (for example). i have no idea whether the latter was indeed hewn from a single billet of alloy, but its appearance would suggest that i am none too far from the truth.
of course, though the emergence of the a-headset - a component, we were unreliably assured, that offered fewer grams to which gravity might apply itself - signalled the demise of the height-adjustable quill stem, in fact, the subsequent emergence of carbon fibre steerers would have ultimately achieved the same result. thus the world of the svelte road bicycle, was interrupted by two external bolts, clamping stem to steerer; functional rather than beautiful. now that tubing has morphed from round to any number of geometrical profiles, perhaps a chunky stem is better camouflaged, but the accumulation of four bolts holding the face-plate in situ, surely did little other than add insult to injury?
the latter may be less of a problem for those of you constrained to a single bicycle, but for those of us involved in the reviewing of quality machinery, the word faff has had good cause to rear its irritating head. the majority of review bicycles arrive in substantially-sized card boxes, usually with the bars not in place to allow said container to remain as narrow as possible. during final assembly, this invariably means holding the bars in place, while trying valiantly to thread the first of those four bolts in place. after a lengthy slew of bad words, the end result can be no more attractive than the clamp at the steerer end.
i have often thought that a hinged clamp on the face plate would be at least something of a remedy for my dubious language, but not being an engineer, i figured it may be a less than pragmatic solution. tom ritchey, however, owns an engineering prowess that any cyclist would be proud to possess and even while ignorant of my situation, he has offered the new ritchey chicane stem to assuage my faff infected pain.
for those apt to consider the handlebar stem as a purely functional item, possessed of mechanical worthiness, but utterly devoid of aesthetic appeal, the chicane stem might well change your mind. that ritchey fellow is a clever chap.
if i might start at the steerer end of the equation, totally missing are the usual two clamp bolts, replaced by a wedge that presses manfully against the frontmost side of the steerer, tightened by means of an allen bolt, hiding under the ritchey logo'd top plate. that top plate also conceals the steerer bolt that holds the entire assembly comfortably to the wedge fitted to the interior of the carbon. the underside of the top plate features a round magnet, providing a firm grasp on the tension bolt washer. the removal of the more usual rounded top cap and the clamp bolts, has agreeably smoothed a once chunky appearance.
the only minor problem is an inability to comply with the unwritten rule requiring a spacer between the stem and the steerer cap. in my case, that spacer had to be relegated between stem and headset.
at the front end of the stem world, not only have two of the faceplate bolts disappeared entirely, the remaining two face inwards instead of outwards. i do question the choice of torx bolt heads, when the tension and wedge bolts are still of the allen variety, but inward facing bolts are far less likely to suffer from the endemically corrosive atmosphere that pervades every last square centimetre of islay. with a top-hinged faceplate, holding the bars in place while affixing the first bolt was, admittedly, a tad faffy to begin with, but nothing like the frustrating exercise usually experienced at this point.
overall, the removal and replacement of bolts has appreciably smoothed the component to the closest it's likely to come to the late-lamented quill stem. and any fears that the magnet in the steerer cap would prove to be a token gesture, have so far been proved wrong.
form-over-function is a phrase that has featured highly in many a velocipedinal discussion; there would be little point in producing a pretty stem if (literally) it fell at the first hurdle, so in order to check that tom ritchey had done his homework properly (after two years of development and more prototypes than you could count on two hands worth of fingers), i headed out onto tarmac purgatory. not only did i do my level best to hammer along the roads we keep for special occasions, but i let up not one whit when crossing several cattle grids.
budge, those handlebars did not.
available for only 1.125" steerers, the ritchey chicane stem can be obtained in lengths ranging from 90mm - 130mm in 10mm increments. price is just above £97 (€109.95). if only there was a shiny version.
tuesday 4 june 2019
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