Rant: 26mm Road Stems
I want a new stem for my Gunnar cyclocross bike. The Gunnar currently has a Salsa steel stem that is exactly what I want, but a little too short.
After an exhaustive search I’ve found very few road stems with the 26mm clamp. Does Thomson make one? No. What about Moots? No. FSA? Nope. Salsa does make a couple stems with 26mm clamps, but the steel version doesn’t come in the length I want, and the one that is the proper length is welded aluminum and looks like it belongs on a downhill bike. The rest of the current offerings seem to all be forged aluminum clones with slightly different but equally garish logos applied.
I thought I found the perfect stem. eBay came though with a new old stock ITM/Colnago Ergo Lite. Unfortunately, the sellers description of a 1 1/8″ steerer with shim to 1″ was incorrect and I now have a nice looking but useless stem. For anyone considering an Egro Lite stem, note that while there is a shim, it is in fact for angle adjustment and only works for a 1″ steerer.
It seems that the perfectly adequate 26mm road bar has fallen out of favor for the ridiculous looking 31.8mm bar. Moots, Thomson, Salsa and just about everyone else make varying assortments of 31.8 stems ranging from nice (Thomson) to hideously ugly (Easton). While trashing my 26mm bar for an otherwise identical 31.8mm bar is a potential solution, replacing the bars, tape and computer mount just to accommodate a silly fad is unnecessary, expensive, and annoying.
Currently it is a toss-up between a 26mm to 31.8mm shim or a new frame. I’ll let you know what happens.
