Gravel / Gravé / Gnarmac / Groad / ATB

I’m riding the Ritchey venturemax and it’s pretty great in terms of shape on the hoods and width on the drops without too much drop to take you over the front on more “technical” stuff.
The bike has become my favourite to ride very very quickly.

Then just go all out:
https://www.enve.com/en/products/adventure-fork/

Yeah, only the drops are further with the longer reach. But I'm also going to a wider bar and it's going from road to gravel so the stem length is going to get shorter anyway just to put me more upright but also because the wider bars will put the shifters further away.

Any decent value but not scaffold-pole weight stems that people trust not to take their teeth out? I've got an 8 year old Cannondale C2 on my bike which could do with being a bit shorter and maybe a little more off-road intended.

Kalloy Uno.

That's it. Never got on with it. Quite like the look of those salsa. but I don't need more bars!

This is correct. You only need cowbells, and no other bars!

These are good.

I like PRO stuff. I think LT is the lower end model but I've got a bunch of versions. XLT etc
It's Shimano so will likely have actually been tested and they're 4-bolt (because everyone knows 2-bolt stems are for arseholes, right?)

Alloy 3T is solid, light and cheap.

I do actually have a 3T on the Kinesis at the moment and it hasn't broken which is nice. The problem with 3T is depending on which version you get some have a single Torx bit for the steerer, which sucks (it's a big one, like T30 which means I gotta carry another allen key for it) and the faceplate bolts are close together which looks like stupid engineering but I don't know how to calculate force and shit so I'll just assume it's ok - I would've used something else but this was the right length and available.

I have the old ones with normal 4mm hex, silly overcomplicated stems are a big no for me. About £10 on eBay, and in 140mm for lanky freaks like me.

Like I said, it was probably what was to hand when the bike got built. I normally stick with PRO stems but didn't have a 130 at the time (stupid short "adventure" bike geo). Its done a lot of miles though, so I can at least attest to a decent durability.

I hear they do good vaccines too.

underrated reply; my kid SUFFERED 2 weeks ago with 12 month MMR

Did they get it for free though?

I hear they do good vaccines too.

Not suitable for anti-vaxxers or their poor children

Have a look at Mt Zoom, I just bought a 90mm one and it weighs about 80g, absolute steal at £35! Might not be the most aesthetically pleasing stem out there but its not hideous either
https://mtzoom.com/collections/bars/products/ultralight-stems-6-17-degree-for-road-mtb-from-79g

Kalloy Uno from HK / Taiwan are (were?) significantly cheaper. 95 grams or thereabouts.
Y0u can buy them from Rose under their own brand too, less work with acetone to remove the logo I guess.

UNO from Asia is definitely cheaper, just throwing another cheapish weight weenie option on the pile.

Now we are talking!

Why are the cables wrapped in what looks like a discarded plastic bag?

aero is errthing

Maybe they were rattling against each other and that shuts them up?