Gravel / Gravé / Gnarmac / Groad / ATB

Quill stems belong on walls, in museums, on a rare Tweed Ride, or in bins.

Ahem…
…actually point taken.

You can ride literally any bike on gravel

The main value of a threaded headset is as theft prevention.

Ridiculous statement

Is it though...

It’s basically treason.

Approved

integrated luggage and gravel

I've ridden my TT bike on gravel and cobbles so sure, have at it.

A this year tour divide starter..

Honest question - why is this? Threat of headset loosening?
What is downside of quill stem offroad?

Headset is more likely to come loose but more importantly, so is the stem. An expanding tube fit is a rubbish engineering solution for the support of a critical cantilever!

It's also a heavier and less stiff but more complex solution.

It's absolutely fine.

la cycling seems wild, because they always include like...20 miles of riding next to a motorway...

Just seen this. Strong agree/cosine etc. Vaguely considered doing a Rapha shop ride while on holiday, realised it started and finished on the Pacific Coast Highway. No.

Later did about 5 miles of separated PCH bike path near Carpinteria, that was bad enough. Some of it was in the central reservation. Maybe we could have that feature added to the A3?

I didn’t die on the 60 mile gravel thing I did on this (had clippy shoes mind)

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Ok. Have had headset locknuts vibrate loose but have not had a property tightened quill stem come loose. And have experienced more issues in keeping threadless setups tight in a plethora of road and non road situations.

An anecdote doesnt make a statistic ;-)

As in…your stem bolts loosened?!

Absolutely! Thats why I asked

I rode track bikes on gravel with 25mm tyres for years and didn't really find them much different to my current cross bike with 35mm tyres so yes can clearly ride anything on gravel but whenever I went through a phase of having an old quill stem track bike the headset would always come loose at some point and was always something to worry about when riding so not a great idea for a lot of off road riding.

not a great idea for a lot of off road riding.

Tell that to the 90s.

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I predict the resurgence of the 90s bar end sometime very soon

The aero bars will move further outwards on the bars, just as Tomac intended.