Two Wheel Blogs

I have heard for a while that there may be a problem with certain road stems. It is old news to most (somehow, I missed the memos), but a few Zepp XL stems have broken resulting in potential crashes. It seems to be worst among those that fancy a sprint from time to time.

An acquaintance of mine (who goes by many online names, but most know him as "Mertens") pulled the face off if his a year or so back during a sprint and took on some damage. At the time I figured he must have ham-fisted the wrench and damaged the threads during install resulting in the failure.

I now have come to understand that a handful of these wonderful stems were spec'ed with short bolts resulting in potential for failure. The problems were corrected long ago by the manufacture, so if you are considering buying one of these things, do not hold back because of this! However, I was never sure if I was riding on a suspect stem or not.

A friend of mine alerted me to the availability of this little beauty (see photo) in his stash, and offered me a deal. It was the wrong size for him, but perfect for me. I must say, it certainly looks stronger than what it replaced.

I have often harped that lightweight parts need to be inspected and replaced regularly. I need to take my own medicine a bit more often. My old stem is pushing 5 years old! In my defense, I really have not ridden on it much in the past 2 years (I have been on the MTB a lot more in recent years).

Since I am planning a season that involves a lot more pavement, it is time to get my steed up to date. Next up is a seat post! Carbon posts were probably never intended to serve a 6 year sentence under my butt!

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