Longer quill for moutain bike ?

LateJunction

Could I get some advice on a modification to my Mountain bike, please?

I have a Raleigh Dynatech Encounter MB, purchased in 1991. It has not had a single failure in 26 years so I very much wish to keep it. But with advancing years I find that the handlebars are too low relative to the seat height (which is set according to my leg length - so both are fixed!). Currently the handlebars are held by a stem quill (with wedge-style fixing) which is 2.56 cm in diameter but only about 10 cm long to the tip of the wedge-angle cut. Not all of this can be 'used' - I have already raised the quill to the limit marks. The stem is welded to the quill; it is about 12 cm long, slightly ovoid in cross section (28 mm by 29.7 mm) with an approx. 30 degree rise.

I would like to know if it is possible to get a similar quill+stem component in which the quill is about 5 cm longer, allowing me to raise the handle bars by this amount and hopefully the stem is shorter. There is one complication: the front (cantilever) brake cable passes into the under surface of the stem and back out again such that the exit is directly above the link wire between the two cantilever arms and allows a vertical pull on the bridge cable. A replacement stem would need to able to route the front brake cable in an equivalent way.

Any advice?

JBA

It may be easier to change the handlebar for one with a greater rise.
What bar is currently on the bike?

whyamihere

For any old or slightly weird stuff, I always look at SJS Cycles.

Quill stems: https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/stems-1-18-quill-threaded/
From the measurements you gave, I'm guessing it will be a 1 1/8" steerer tube, but just check that first (that's the outside diameter of the fork tube which runs through the headset).

For the cable hanger, I'd suggest using something like this: https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/brakes/allo ... rs-silver/
It fits in as a spacer below the lockring on your headset, and removes the need to try to find a stem with a cable hanger built in.

LateJunction

JBA wrote:

What bar is currently on the bike?

It's the original Raleigh Dynatech almost straight, flat-bar which is of variable diameter - almost exactly 25.4 mm in the cntre of the bar for about 3 cms .

LateJunction

whyamihere wrote:

For any old or slightly weird stuff, I always look at SJS Cycles.

Quill stems: https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/stems-1-18-quill-threaded/
From the measurements you gave, I'm guessing it will be a 1 1/8" steerer tube, but just check that first (that's the outside diameter of the fork tube which runs through the headset).

For the cable hanger, I'd suggest using something like this: https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/brakes/allo ... rs-silver/
It fits in as a spacer below the lockring on your headset, and removes the need to try to find a stem with a cable hanger built in.

Magnificent - thank you. Both these links point to directly relevant and applicable solutions. This is much easier than I thought; I especially like the front cable hangar solution - much superior to what I have now. Thank you.

JBA

CRC have a selection of 25.4mm riser bars HERE.
The Spank Tweet Tweet comes in a range of rises from 30mm to 75mm.

The Rookie

You can also fit a stem with a shorter throw moving the bars back towards you, this has the same effect of allowing you to sit more upright.

A bit extreme... http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Humpert-TALL- ... zCN52uSxPQ

LateJunction

whyamihere wrote:

For the cable hanger, I'd suggest using something like this: https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/brakes/allo ... rs-silver/
It fits in as a spacer below the lockring on your headset, and removes the need to try to find a stem with a cable hanger built in.

Ah! A bit of an issue: I have about 5mm of steerer tube thread showing above the top bearing race when it is tightened to about the right 'feel'. The front brake cable hanger is 5 mm thick (from just about any supplier), making it impossible to fix the lock nut with the hanger in place.....

whyamihere

https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/brakes/254- ... ter-black/
This one will clamp onto the quill part of the stem. Again, check the sizes to make sure you get the right one.

cycleclinic

If I understand right you have a 12cm long stem and want one that is 5cm longer so that is a 17cm long stem. That does not exsist for a good reason.

If you want a longer quill then that is possible. The nitto NTC DX 225 has a 225mm long quill. you will have to use nitto 25.4mm to 26.0mm handle bar shims to get your 25.4mm bars to clamp.

LateJunction

thecycleclinic wrote:

If I understand right you have a 12cm long stem and want one that is 5cm longer so that is a 17cm long stem. That does not exsist for a good reason.

If you want a longer quill then that is possible. The nitto NTC DX 225 has a 225mm long quill. you will have to use nitto 25.4mm to 26.0mm handle bar shims to get your 25.4mm bars to clamp.

The good reason being ?

These numbers are approximate; the currently installed quill is 14 cm long, to the tip of the wedge (I have just dis-asembled the whole thing for other educational reasons). About 7 cm of this is visible above the lock-nut, with the limit mark just showing. (By the way this leaves only about 5 cm of the quill in the steerer tube below the top race; bearing in mind the bottom 3 cm of the quill are tapered this doesn't leave much contact area between the quill and the steerer tube).

I would like to raise the handle bars by about 5 cm, suggesting I need a quill that is at least 14 + 5 = 19 cm long. In fact I would like to have another 3 cm of quill inside the steerer tube too, suggesting I need a quill of 22 cm. There are 23 cm quills available (at a price). I have elected to purchase one that is, perversely, only 18 cm but which has an adjustable stem which is 11 cm long and can be raised up to 60 deg. This not only gives me another 6 cm or so of lift, but also brings the handlebars closer to the centre line of the steerer by about 6 cm compared to the current 13 cm/ 30 deg. stem. With this replacement quill I can get the additional length of material inside the steerer tube to spread the load better and get the additional height I need.

LateJunction

whyamihere wrote:

https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/brakes/254-tektro-alloy-cable-hanger-w-adjuster-black/
This one will clamp onto the quill part of the stem. Again, check the sizes to make sure you get the right one.

Thanks for this; I have indeed ordered this component, in 25.4 mm diameter, rather than 26.8 mm, for my 'oversized' steerer. My initial search on Ebay failed to find this component, pointing my only to equivalents in Germany at double the price when including P&P!