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I was going to title the post with the usual "Recommend me a ..." but I don't think I'm going to have the luxury of choice. 80mm stems seem to have gone out of fashion as does silver finishing kit, add to this the fact that a lot of stem manufacturers seem to be moving from standard size to oversize and an 80mm, silver, 25.4mm stem seems as rare as the proverbial hen's teeth, but I want one. Does such a piece of kit exist?
Failing that I could go oversize and shim it down or buy some new bars. I'm sure that Thomson used to do an oversized, 80mm stem in silver but Wiggle and CRC don't seem to have them. Does anyone have any suggestions?
ive never seen an 80mm x4 for sale but they do list one on their X4 sizes page so in theory you may be able to get one with a bit of "we can order it for you" type shenanigans.
If you can find a cheap black (anodised) stem, it might be worth giving it a few minutes dousing in oven cleaner. This will remove the top layer of dyed black anodising and leave a silver stem, though if the stem has been beadblasted to a matt finish it might not look so great.
Wouldn't do this with an expensive stem unless it was already a bit tatty looking.
If you leave the oven cleaner on a bit longer you can remove the full layer of anodising and polish the stem up, but I've never been too confident in how much the strength would then be affected.
I have a sunline all mountain stm, in 80mm length. Its a kind of silvery / pewter colour Its oversize though, but if you fancied it, i would seell it as i need to get something lighter....
Thompson do a 70 & a 90
The also list an 80mm oversize stem with 0 degrees rise (ideally I'd like a bit of rise) model number SM-E157 but I don't seem to any luck finding someone with a silver one in stock ([url= http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Thomson-Elite-X4-Oversize-Handlebar-Stem-80mm-0deg-NEW_W0QQitemZ390142830156QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_sportsleisure_cycling_bikeparts_SR?hash=item5ad653264c ]there are black ones for sale on ebay[/url]).
BBB do 80mm and polished silver in oversize.
I think they used to do 75mm in matt silver with a 25.4mm clamp up til a year or two ago so you might be lucky to find someone with old stock if you spend some time searching.
There's someone with an 80mm silver thomson on ebay, but they're based in Hong Kong.
I'm currently running an old silver Raceface stem which still have plenty of life left in it, so I've time to hunt around.