Avenir stems

dave_sd · 09-19-2011, 11:49 PM

Anyone have any experience with Avenir stems? They are quite inexpensive, so I want to make sure I'm not buying a piece of junk. I plan to put it on a tandem that I picked up.

-Dave

nfmisso · 09-20-2011, 12:04 AM

This is what I put on our T50 (120mm stem)
http://www.amazon.com/Avenir-61-27-208-E-200-Series-Stem/dp/B002BW39B2/
http://www.amazon.com/Avenir-Mountain-Handlebars-Black-600mm/dp/B002BW3H4Q/

Works well.

The 200 series is large diameter thin wall aluminum, very stiff and strong; and light wieght.

RobAR · 09-21-2011, 07:54 PM

Hey Dave. While Avenir is by no means 'fancy' stuff, it is very respectable and I've used many Avenir products over the years.
Avenir is tied to Diamondback like Cycle Design (CD) was to GT years ago or like Bontrager is to Trek today.

dave_sd · 09-22-2011, 12:27 AM

Excellent. I have the stem and I'm going to put it on the bike tomorrow if I'm lucky, or saturday if I'm unlucky.

Thanks for the replies!

RobAR · 10-03-2011, 07:26 PM

Were you lucky or unlucky?

dave_sd · 10-04-2011, 01:16 AM

I think it finally went on that sunday. It seems to be fine, though. It's a 1.25" stem and my bar is only 1", and the shims it came with were a little difficult to work with, but I got it together. Now I just need to replace the seat post with one with 0 setback and then I'll be good to go!

nfmisso · 10-04-2011, 10:44 AM

1 1/4 or 1 1/8 ?

Be safe; get a different stem that matches your bars, or get bars that match your stem; shims are not great to work with on such as safety critical area as the handle bars.

dave_sd · 10-04-2011, 02:08 PM

1-1/4. They were difficult in the sense that they kept falling out when I was tightening the face plate nuts rather than them not fitting flush