Chinese Stems

[alkali]

My hardtail has been fumbling along for the last couple of months with a gargantuan 70 or 80 or 90mm (who knows, it's long, too long and that's all that matters) stem. With a long stem my delicious bike flops about like Miss Piggy and handles like a bag of fish. I've been putting up with it for a while because I'm lazy but the other week I threw caution to the wind and lashed out £6 on ebay for one of these badboys.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/161705754824?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&var=460677227381&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT">http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/161705754824? ... EBIDX%3AIT</a><!-- m -->



Yes, that's right, I value my face that much, but such is my love for you Sketchy guys that I'm willing to put my good looks on the line and test out this 'El Budgeto' stem.

And less than a week later it arrived! Woohoo!



It looks like that. I'm disappointed that there is no small lump of bogey like in the ebay picture.

The finish seems fine, it has the obligatory Chinese 'Best Bicycle' nonsense written on it but I might be able to shift that with some IPA, the bolts were lightly greased, it's pretty good.

Downside are it uses 4mm allen / hex bolts (I prefer a meatier 5mm bolt) and I managed to put a slight nick in the black finish whilst fitting it.

For £6 it seems perfect, I baulk at splashing out £25 for a lump of metal with a name on it. As my bars are the old school 25.4mm I fitted the stem using a funky spacer set, it's tricky to see from the pics but this gives a cool cutaway kinda look which goes well with the minimal stem design.



I've just returned safely from the first ride, I managed to buy some organic chicken thighs without my bike exploding so that's nice. I will be making Coq au Vin for the mother-in-law this weekend, she does love the Coq.

[sirromj]

Looks like a Funnduro <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.funnmtb.com/product_detail.php?fid=12&p_no=2">http://www.funnmtb.com/product_detail.php?fid=12&p_no=2</a><!-- m -->
Got an older model on my FS but black and no bare alu and rusty bolts.

[Skid]

First time ever that something looked better in the flesh than in the advert, shame it's not like that on dating sites.
Good luck on it not murdering you to death there buddy, but think your be safe enough reckon those twig bars you've got will Finnish you off first

[alkali]

Yeah I know, twiggy bars are white too, sooo dated. I must get some nice wide OS bars

[Jay Dubster]

Intrigued how Indian Pale Ale will help remove the best bicycle text, but otherwise looks ok.
Is it made of pig iron to give your front end uber-gravity for added corner grip & nosedives?

[alkali]

I got so excited by my delivery that I forgot to bang it on the scales. However, To the touch it is a winning combination of not very heavy, fairly light, surprisingly unweighty and rather lightish. It's also warm and slightly furry. I can also confirm that the MIL enjoyed her coq.

Indian Pale Ale is recommended for all cleaning purposes, indeed, it's the only cleaning fluid that is endorsed by Kim and Aggie, the pair of gin sozzled harpies. They like nothing better than to crack open a bottle before launching into a scrubbing frenzy.

[sirromj]

Hmm, it's nearly a month now, has it murdered you to death or not, or have you been locked up for poisoning the mother in law?

[alkali]

I've been riding this eastern beauty for the last few weeks and it's delivered nothing but good times and happy endings. My face remains as funny looking as before, but no surgery has been necessary yet.

Being dead short (stem, not face) took a little getting used to, but I'm steering the bike with my hips more so that's a good thing, it has hampered the climbing ability of the bike but who cares about climbing? When I stand and crank up an incline I don't have as much room to lever the bike about as I'd like, but that's of little concern because I'm only going up a hill in order to come down it.

If I was doing some demented xc race I'd put the long stem back on, but I'd also fit skinny slicks and bar ends and all that other 90s guff.

I'd still come last...

[Treehugger]

Lol.

[Jay Dubster]

Nice one Alkali :lol:
Glad it hasn't had an epic fatal fail and you're still loving the coq obviously!