old alloy

halfwheeler
halfwheeler Posts: 29
edited December 2009 in Road general
Posted this in workshop as well.
How trustworthy is old alloy for stems and bars. I have various bits for a winter hack GB / Cinelli etc but wondering about metal fatigue.

Comments

  • Monty Dog
    Monty Dog Posts: 20,614
    I'm still running an old Cinelli stem from the early 80s - they are usually solid and therefore a crack would be fairly obvious and they're far less prone to fatigue failure in comparison to their modern counterparts with thin tubing IME.
    Make mine an Italian, with Campagnolo on the side..
  • halfwheeler
    halfwheeler Posts: 29
    Thanks for that. I have a garage full of 70's/ 80s gear and it seemed a shame not to use it. Thats my evenings sorted this week!
  • lae
    lae Posts: 555
    My 1980 bike is still using original alloy stems and bars. As Monty said, you'd notice a crack really easily.

    It polishes up really well if you use a felt wheel in an electric drill (held in a workmate or similar) with some autosol. You get black crap all over your hands though.

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