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Is a £60 stem really 3 times better than a £20 stem?
They look similar, are the same length, colour, angle and material.
Why the price difference?
Will I suffer a horrendous crash and be killed to death by the cheaper one?
Is it purely aesthetics?
Diminishing returns.
Brand snobbery mostly I reckon.
A lot of the more expensive ones use more expensive manufacturing methods. The more expensive manufacturing methods aren't necessarily any better, and the resulting shapes aren't necessarily any stiffer/stronger.
Will I suffer a horrendous crash and be killed to death by the cheaper one?
Seeing as eldest_oab was taking on Ft William DH jumps runway section on a stem and bars that are £10 new from CRC, no, you will be fine.
Just do not go OTT.
In some particular moment I managed to unscrew whole interia of the thread of a cheappo chinese copy of Funn Funduro stem face plate. Used on sedate rides on fat bike, nothing rowdy...
Cheers!
I.
Will I suffer a horrendous crash and be killed to death by the cheaper one?
I'd say its the opposite. As long as you don't go crazy cheap then the budget ones are likely to be stronger. The more expensive ones will be built to finer margins to get the weight down. They are also often machined rather than cast/forged which is less good for the grain structure of the metal. Have a google for 'broken Thomson stem' for thousands of images and results
The last 3 stems I bought were £10 each, they seem to hold the bars to the bikes well enough
I almost wrote what nickjb said, even using Thomson as the example again, totally agree. Don't get me wrong, I often buy pretty stems, don't be under the illusion it's better/lighter/stiffer though.
With Thomson you pay more for worse, it's bizarre.
My Pro FRSs and my ancient KCNC were all £20 or less and every bit as good as you could ask. My renthal was more expensive and is ****ing hideous and no better.