The stem is the 'money shot'. The reason it is like that, is because a pumped up East German sprinter would snap a normal stem.
Can't remember which German sprinter it was, but one of them went to Japan and broke an NJS approved stem with his bare hands......
he broke njs stems in front of the njs approvers and was allowed to use the "bierhahn" stem. and we are talking about the beast from the east aka michael hübner
he broke njs stems in front of the njs approvers and was allowed to use the "bierhahn" stem. and we are talking about the beast from the east aka michael hübner