Extended stems

I am building up an old, 20" tandem for touring. It's way too small
for an adult, so I machined an extension for the goose neck... this
proved to be a poor idea! As soon as I romped on it to get across a
busy street, the extension snapped off, leading to a very hard fall
for both of us.

OK, we had our helmets on... without them, it would have been E-room
visit for sure. (Never again will I mount any bike without my
helmet!!!) It was a very bad crash; however, we survived... at about
60 years old, that's the best one hopes for.

So... I have an old Littlejohn BMX tandem that I have restored and
want to use as a travel bike. (I suppose I should have bought a Bike
Friday; however, I didn't.) I need a *long* goose neck stem...
preferably, one that's strong, not necessarily light weight. I need
about 8" of rise; I'm willing to pay the weight cost.

I'm thinking of using a 12" "ape hanger" bar as one possible option...
can anyone think of another way to (safely) raise the handlebars on a
small frame?

Jones

On Jul 10, 3:07*pm, !Jones wrote:
I am building up an old, 20" tandem for touring. *It's way too small
for an adult, so I machined an extension for the goose neck... this
proved to be a poor idea! *As soon as I romped on it to get across a
busy street, the extension snapped off, leading to a very hard fall
for both of us.

OK, we had our helmets on... without them, it would have been E-room
visit for sure. *(Never again will I mount any bike without my
helmet!!!) *It was a very bad crash; however, we survived... at about
60 years old, that's the best one hopes for.

So... I have an old Littlejohn BMX tandem that I have restored and
want to use as a travel bike. *(I suppose I should have bought a Bike
Friday; however, I didn't.) *I need a *long* goose neck stem...
preferably, one that's strong, not necessarily light weight. *I need
about 8" of rise; I'm willing to pay the weight cost.

I'm thinking of using a 12" "ape hanger" bar as one possible option...
can anyone think of another way to (safely) raise the handlebars on a
small frame?

Jones

Would a Nitto Technomic solve your problem? The ad copy says 2.5" of
rise but I had one and its a lot more than that.
http://sheldonbrown.com/harris/stems/index.html

Or assuming you have a threaded stem on this bike. Get one of these
adapters that allow you to use threadless stems.
http://www.nashbar.com/bikes/Product..._200276_200459

Then stack 1 or 2 of these risers on the above adapter.
http://www.nashbar.com/bikes/Product..._200276_200460

Then put on this adjustable stem and tilt it straight up.
http://www.nashbar.com/bikes/Product..._200276_200460

Still Just Me - schreef:
On Fri, 10 Jul 2009 15:07:31 -0500, !Jones wrote:


OK, we had our helmets on... without them, it would have been E-room
visit for sure. (Never again will I mount any bike without my
helmet!!!) It was a very bad crash; however, we survived... at about
60 years old, that's the best one hopes for.

Oh,oh... incoming!

Yes, people doing such dumb things should wear helmets.

Lou

!Jones wrote:

I am building up an old, 20" tandem for touring. *It's way too small
for an adult, so I machined an extension for the goose neck... this
proved to be a poor idea! *As soon as I romped on it to get across a
busy street, the extension snapped off, leading to a very hard fall
for both of us.

OK, we had our helmets on... without them, it would have been E-room
visit for sure. *(Never again will I mount any bike without my
helmet!!!) *It was a very bad crash; however, we survived... at about
60 years old, that's the best one hopes for.

I snapped off a couple of stems and fork steerers in my day, resulting
in crashes. I wasn't wearing a helmet, and I was /totally/ killed
every time it happened-- brains dashed out and everything. This
caused a lot of needless stress for my mother. I would wear a helmet
now, except that I haven't a speck of brain left, so why bother?

So... I have an old Littlejohn BMX tandem that I have restored and
want to use as a travel bike. *(I suppose I should have bought a Bike
Friday; however, I didn't.) *I need a *long* goose neck stem...
preferably, one that's strong, not necessarily light weight. *I need
about 8" of rise; I'm willing to pay the weight cost.

You might get by with something like this:

http://www.bikepartsusa.com/bikeparts/item/01-134157

But that's not your strongest option. See below.

I'm thinking of using a 12" "ape hanger" bar as one possible option...

Ape hangers are usually too wide for good ergonomics, and they are
somewhat whippy and likely to bend in a tip-over. For strength, you
need a riser bar with a crosspiece, like a BMX bar.

I have a load-carrying bike that posed the same problem you face. I
found my best option for maximum structural integrity was to use a
very stout BMX stem in combination with a Sun EZ-1 recumbent
handlebar.

http://datribean.com/chalo/images/chair1.jpg
http://datribean.com/chalo/images/chair2.jpg

That 17" tall handlebar can be ordered by any bike shop that uses J&B
as a wholesale distributor (which is to say almost any bike shop).
The bar comes in aluminum and steel versions with a 22.2mm or 25.4mm
clamp section. Your best bet is to get a steel bar with a 22.2mm
clamp diameter, and mate it with a sturdy BMX/freestyle stem that has
a stout four-bolt clamp. The leverage of such a tall handlebar is
likely to make a one- or two-bolt clamp slip when you pull on the
bars.

If possible, run the BMX stem at full insertion to minimize bending of
the stem quill. The short extension of the BMX stem is irrelevant,
because you can get all the fore-to-aft adjustment you need by tilting
the bar slightly one way or the other.

Chalo

!Jones wrote:
I am building up an old, 20" tandem for touring. It's way too small
for an adult, so I machined an extension for the goose neck... this
proved to be a poor idea! As soon as I romped on it to get across a
busy street, the extension snapped off, leading to a very hard fall
for both of us.

OK, we had our helmets on... without them, it would have been E-room
visit for sure. (Never again will I mount any bike without my
helmet!!!) It was a very bad crash; however, we survived... at about
60 years old, that's the best one hopes for.

So... I have an old Littlejohn BMX tandem that I have restored and
want to use as a travel bike. (I suppose I should have bought a Bike
Friday; however, I didn't.) I need a *long* goose neck stem...
preferably, one that's strong, not necessarily light weight. I need
about 8" of rise; I'm willing to pay the weight cost.

I'm thinking of using a 12" "ape hanger" bar as one possible option...
can anyone think of another way to (safely) raise the handlebars on a
small frame?

Get the longest stem you can find, and combine with a stem extender.

I.e., you can buy a Nitto Technomic stem with a 10" column, or a stem
riser that adds another 8", or a Nitto Periscopa
"http://www.rivbike.com/search/run?query=stem&commit=Search#product=16-131"
"http://www.rivbike.com/search/run?query=stem&page=2#product=16-047"

Go to "http://www.ebikestop.com/search.php" and search for "quill stem
riser"

Or
"http://www.rivbike.com/search/run?query=stem&commit=Search#product=16-190"

On Jul 10, 9:07*pm, !Jones wrote:
I am building up an old, 20" tandem for touring. *It's way too small
for an adult, so I machined an extension for the goose neck... this
proved to be a poor idea! *As soon as I romped on it to get across a
busy street, the extension snapped off, leading to a very hard fall
for both of us.

OK, we had our helmets on... without them, it would have been E-room
visit for sure. *(Never again will I mount any bike without my
helmet!!!) *It was a very bad crash; however, we survived... at about
60 years old, that's the best one hopes for.

So... I have an old Littlejohn BMX tandem that I have restored and
want to use as a travel bike. *(I suppose I should have bought a Bike
Friday; however, I didn't.) *I need a *long* goose neck stem...
preferably, one that's strong, not necessarily light weight. *I need
about 8" of rise; I'm willing to pay the weight cost.

I'm thinking of using a 12" "ape hanger" bar as one possible option...
can anyone think of another way to (safely) raise the handlebars on a
small frame?

Jones

I'm sorry to hear about your fall. We don't mention helmets here
because the helmet haters start foaming at the mouth.

If you look at the picture at the top of this page:
http://www.audio-talk.co.uk/fiultra/...%20Smover.html
you will see that I have made the handlebars much higher than on the
standard bike (shown down the page a bit). The parts for a threaded
headset/quill stem setup include a stem raiser shown top left of this
page:
http://www.bicycle-mountain-bike-cyc...ure/index.html
and a long (they go up to 12in/300mm) adjustable quill stem with a
short extension
http://www.bicycle-mountain-bike-cyc...mtb/index.html
-- though mine came with the bike -- on top of which I fitted the
standard North Road town and country bars. It is possible to go higher
still by fitting U-bars from one of the many recumbents -- not ape
hanger bars which are generally too wide; you want about 24in max
width for a convenient utility bike.

Actually, if you know what you're doing, for an unthreaded, Ahead-set
stem, the parts can be the same, plus a locking collar. But this does
require that you drive out the star nut, and have a little practice at
how tight you should set a threadless headset. In this case the lock-
collar rests hard on the top of the headset and locks all the parts of
the headset, steerer tube (and its extension) and headset together.
and the angled expander at the bottom of the steerer-extender provides
further rigidity down the steerer tube. Since you've already had an
accident, you may want to negotiate with an LBS to give you half an
hour to assemble these parts.

However, we don't want to be alarmist. BBB, for instance, sells an
entire assembly (less the spacers which you have to buy extra) for
doing the job yet anotherer way (with threadless parts up top), and
since it is in retail shops on the racks, I assume they intend
cyclists to fit it themselves. It won't give you the height you want
but you might want to take a look anyway:
http://www.bbbparts.com/headparts_extender-bhp20.php
and
http://www.bbbparts.com/headparts_extender-bhp21.php
However, I am not overly keen on this version of the alterations you
want to perform because you now need a separate stem, whereas in the
version I suggest above (hollow stem raiser, quill stem inside it, the
lot fixed by a locking collar in place of the threadless stem) you
will probably spend less money and for practical purposes have
steering as safe and sturdy as any other option unless and until you
start bombing down hills on rough roads or in the rough.

You have to be careful ordering parts as there are two steerer sizes,
and some measurements are taken on the inside and some on the outside
(and some BMX have a rare larger size), and there are furthermore two
standards, threaded and threadless, so four possibilities altogether.
If this is news to you, start haunting Sheldon Brown's netsite;
Sheldon also shows how to use the locking collar on the steerer tube
after you remove the star nut.

In fact, unless you're already familiar with Sheldon, you should spend
time on his site for the authoritative gen and no-nonsense tips.

HTH.

Andre Jute
Visit Andre's books at
http://www.audio-talk.co.uk/fiultra/THE%20WRITER'S%20HOUSE.html

On Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:52:17 -0700 (PDT), in rec.bicycles.tech Chalo
wrote:

I snapped off a couple of stems and fork steerers in my day, resulting
in crashes. I wasn't wearing a helmet, and I was /totally/ killed
every time it happened-- brains dashed out and everything. This
caused a lot of needless stress for my mother. I would wear a helmet
now, except that I haven't a speck of brain left, so why bother?

Well, yeah... I have taken out the (now two-pice) adaptor... it looks
like I just programmed too much plunge into the drill cycle; the
general idea *should* have worked. The OD of the lower half equals
the ID of the upper and I got them too close together trying to save
weight. It was turned outta 304 SS.

When those things go, it's a serious bummer!

So... a 'bent bar, huh? That's worth a thought.

Jones

On Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:52:17 -0700 (PDT), in rec.bicycles.tech Chalo
wrote:

http://datribean.com/chalo/images/chair1.jpg

That's certainly an odd looking contraption. I'll post a picture of
the Littlejohn, if I survive the skakedown runs.

Jones

On Fri, 10 Jul 2009 14:42:46 -0700 (PDT), in rec.bicycles.tech Andre
Jute wrote:

I'm sorry to hear about your fall. We don't mention helmets here
because the helmet haters start foaming at the mouth.

That's fine... I used to scoff, also. One of my co-workers ragged on
me until I finally started wearing one; the wife always did. We have
never fallen and have ridden tandem for decades... all it takes is
once. When that puppy snapped off, there wasn't time to do anything
except obey gravity. The wife hit her head on the pavement and
cracked the helmet; however, she is OK. I don't even want to *think*
about the alternative to not wearing one... others may do as they
please. If they value their heads as much as *I* value their heads,
it's fine with me. I'm putting *my* head in a helmet. If my children
were of an age where I had any say, they'd wear one, too; however,
they're grown.

Jones

On Fri, 10 Jul 2009 17:20:33 -0500, in rec.bicycles.tech !Jones
wrote:

That 17" tall handlebar can be ordered by any bike shop that uses J&B
as a wholesale distributor (which is to say almost any bike shop).
The bar comes in aluminum and steel versions with a 22.2mm or 25.4mm
clamp section. Your best bet is to get a steel bar with a 22.2mm
clamp diameter, and mate it with a sturdy BMX/freestyle stem that has
a stout four-bolt clamp. The leverage of such a tall handlebar is
likely to make a one- or two-bolt clamp slip when you pull on the
bars.

My LBS (who is a Sun dealer) says that 22.2mm clamp size doesn't
exist! Wow!

Oh, well, they're not much use, IMO.

Jones