I recently picked up an older oclv frame with a quill stem. I purchased a quill adaptor thingy from Nashbar to use a threadless stem I have. But the adaptor is freakin' heavy. Why should I bother...? What is wrong with sticking with a quil stem anyways....

Thanks,
Chris

All my bikes have quill stems. Almost all Tours de France have been won with quill stems. There is nothing wrong with them. They just aren't the latest and greatest is technology, but they work fine.

I recently picked up an older oclv frame with a quill stem. I purchased a quill adaptor thingy from Nashbar to use a threadless stem I have. But the adaptor is freakin' heavy. Why should I bother...? What is wrong with sticking with a quil stem anyways....

Thanks,
Chris
If you're not saving weight and it ain't broke, don't fix it..

My 1992 Specialized Epic still has the old quill stem. It works, never had a problem, Unless I start changing the fork and such I ain't gonna even think about touching it..

I had a adapter for my '98 Trek 5200 and it creaked to no end.I tried everything to make it stop but just wouldn't stop that iritating noise.Something about the adapter rubbing in the headtube.Not saying this will be your problem as well,but I'd be hesitant.

I finally just bit the bullet and bought a Easton SL 1" fork and King headset and put those creaks to bed. After the fork and headset were professionally installed at my lbs I threw the adapter in the parking lot and drove over the adapter a couple of times out of frustration and for payback for all of the rides it had messed up.

I had a adapter for my '98 Trek 5200 and it creaked to no end.I tried everything to make it stop but just wouldn't stop that iritating noise.Something about the adapter rubbing in the headtube.Not saying this will be your problem as well,but I'd be hesitant.

I finally just bit the bullet and bought a Easton SL 1" fork and King headset and put those creaks to bed. After the fork and headset were professionally installed at my lbs I threw the adapter in the parking lot and drove over the adapter a couple of times out of frustration and for payback for all of the rides it had messed up.

My last three bikes all have had ahead style fork/headset/stems and all three have had creaking/clicking noise problems (King HS, LOOK/Columbus forks, Ritchey stems). No matter what I do, the noise always seems to come back after 500 - 1000 miles. The root cause seems to be corrosion in between the various stacked components, most likely the stem spacer; if everything is greased up fresh, it's quiet. But the noise always comes back. It's not so upsetting that I'm going to run the parts over with my car, but it is a major pain in the rear to have to service the front end all the time.

Before moving to these "high tech" parts, my quill stems never had so many problems. They are not perfect, but they are far less prone to noise from my experiences.

Ed

I have one of those adapters on an old bike, which I like a lot since it let me use a long stem that was the smaller 25.4 size. Finding such a thing in a quill stem would be difficult these days. The other advantage (especially on a new bike) is that the removable faceplate -- which most threadless stems have and most quill stems lack -- lets you try out different lengths very easily: you get the easy height adjustment of the quill and the easy length adjustment of pop-top stems. Mine hasn't caused any creaking or anything like that.

Of course, if you're already set with the sizing of the stem, there's no reason to switch.

i bought the exact same nashbar adapter. i am currently using it on my road bike. i have a lemond zurich that i've retrofitted. gone from the cinelli quill stem to a threadless stem and oversized bars.
i got the adapter because i wanted to use 31.8, flat-top handlebars and you can only use those with a stem that has a removable faceplate. i really like the handlebars, ird's blackbird - i have larger hands and gripping a normal sized round bar was just not comfortable - and love the ease of just being able to remove the faceplate and work on the stem or fork or bars or whatever you need to access without unwrapping tape, taking off shifters, etc.
yes, the nashbar adapter is a bit heavy, but it is well worth the little bit of extra weight, for the convenience and flexibility it provides.
also, for me, i've found that the quill stem was much more flexy than the threadless stem/bar combo i now use. i'm about 210 pounds and the combination of the oversized bar and new stem is much, much stiffer than the older cinelli stem/standard bar setup. the cinelli stem sure looked great, and i was hesitant to switch, because of aesthetics, but for function, my new setup is far superior.