Non-matching bar and stem

[echelon_john]

Never mind

[veggieburger]

Originally Posted by Bradford

It has never occurred to me that I should match bars and stems.

Never? Not once? Not while flipping through a cycling magazine or looking through a line of bikes at a bike store?

[veggieburger]

Originally Posted by zlin

Whoa - hang on a sec! I can't believe I'm going to say this to an internet full of strangers but I have a bike with a campy 11 crank, sram 10 sp shifters, and I think there is even a record 10 fd but it all moves me forward when I pedal.

The bars and step don't match, either

Blaspheme!

[El Chaba]

I'll make a further note that it used to be that each bar/stem manufacturer had its own bar stem interface diameter. Cinelli 26.4....3TTT 26.0....ITM 25.9...Philippe/Atax 25.4, etc..Presumably this was done to discourage the sin of mixing and matching.

[Bradford]

Originally Posted by veggieburger

Never? Not once? Not while flipping through a cycling magazine or looking through a line of bikes at a bike store?

No, never.

I've thought about the color of my bars and stem, but that is just because I hate black. For a stem, I care about where it puts the bars. For bars, I care about where it puts my hands and how they feel in each position. For both, I care about whether or not they are strong enough to protect my teeth. That's about it.

I've also never thought about my saddle brand matching my seat post brand or my hub brand matching my spoke or rim brand.

Then again, I'm not the most fashion forward person in the world. I have four road bikes right now, and because of some temporary extenuating circumstances, none of them have matching front and rear wheels. Starting next week one will be back to a matched set, but two others won't be musical-chaired back to their matched sets until the summer, and the last set needs a front wheel built by Old Potatoe next winter to be a set again.

I'm make my bike pretty when I can, but performance, reliability, safety, and cost are all ahead of pretty in line.

[jmoore]

Originally Posted by Bradford

No, never.

I've thought about the color of my bars and stem, but that is just because I hate black. For a stem, I care about where it puts the bars. For bars, I care about where it puts my hands and how they feel in each position. For both, I care about whether or not they are strong enough to protect my teeth. That's about it.

I've also never thought about my saddle brand matching my seat post brand or my hub brand matching my spoke or rim brand.

Then again, I'm not the most fashion forward person in the world. I have four road bikes right now, and because of some temporary extenuating circumstances, none of them have matching front and rear wheels. Starting next week one will be back to a matched set, but two others won't be musical-chaired back to their matched sets until the summer, and the last set needs a front wheel built by Old Potatoe next winter to be a set again.

I'm make my bike pretty when I can, but performance, reliability, safety, and cost are all ahead of pretty in line.

I bet your socks don't match you kit either

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

[RobJ]

The whole Feng Shui of a build is messed up if you mismatch. Easily costs you a couple of watts

Within a given manufacturer there are plenty of sizing options for bars/stems/posts that its almost impossible not to be able to match. My US frames I like to source US parts as much as possible and my Italians well, they are dressed in Campy and Deda mostly.

[93KgBike]

I choose components entirely based on color palette, because at my age I'm dressing the paint job more than the bike.

[Kontact]

I think the only times my bar and stem matched was that the SR set that came with my high school Raleigh were 25.4 and a current set of Cinellis are 26.4. Every other bike got the bars I liked with the stems I liked.

I think it is a stretch to think that something as personal as a bar is always going to have a matching stem that does what I needed it to. I think that started for me when I first built a bike for myself 31 years ago - I didn't even buy a stem until I had the bike put together enough to fit it to myself.

[choke]

Originally Posted by Bradford

It has never occurred to me that I should match bars and stems.

I'm the same...I've never built up a bike that way. I do have some vintage bikes where they match but that's because the bar and stem worked for me so I didn't feel a need to change either one.

[berserk87]

Originally Posted by Bradford

It has never occurred to me that I should match bars and stems.

A bike is a performance tool, not a dress to wear to the prom. Set it up the way it performs the best for you and your intended use. If it looks good to you, than that is a nice bonus, but not even the second or third most important thing to worry about.

We might have been twins separated at birth.

[charliedid]

This is in the running for the weirdest thread.

[Llewellyn]

I run a custom Llewellyn stem with Ritchey handlebars and it looks fantastic

[El Chaba]

Originally Posted by Llewellyn

I run a custom Llewellyn stem with Ritchey handlebars and it looks fantastic

This is an example of a well established caveat to the matching stem bar rule. A well made and gorgeous custom stem can be paired with the nice handlebars of the rider's choice. This caveat has historical precedent that predates any rider still riding today having its origins at least back to the days of custom stems produced by legendary builders such as Rene Herse and Alex Singer being paired with bars from traditional component manufacturers.

[William]

What happens in my crew for questioning my cockpit choices...










William