Minimum insert for stem with no marking?

Posted on Mon 28th, September 2009

• #1

A_EF

Is there any "rule of thumb" or guide for the minimum safe distance to insert a stem that has no minimum insert marking? Maybe a precentage of the overall length of the stem or at least x inches?
• #2

henrys

Yes, 1.5 times the diameter absolute minimum.
• #3

TheorySwine

Finally, A EF can go and ride his bike
• #4

loafheads

60 mm
• #5

henrys

Correction, for a stem it's 2.5 times diameter per clause 4.7.3. of ISO 4210 standard for bicycle safety, which is also followed by CEN, BS, DIN, ANSI, AS, etc.
For seat posts it's 2 times diameter.
Yes I'm nerdy, I need to get out more :)
• #6

loafheads

so your math ads up to 55mm so 60mm is a safe bet for a typical quill stem.
• #7

pifko

*Still *no thanks from A EF? Ungrateful cunt.
• #8

Thomas_M

Bear with him - he's been out riding constantly since Sunday
• #9

A_EF

Thanks guys. I've been waiting to ride my bike for nearly a year and a half. Now, finally I can get out there due to your excellent mathematical assistance.

Now if I can just shed the 17 stone I've gained sitting at my computer refreshing this post in desperate hope for the last 18 months I'll be able to get out there and ride.

Post a reply
- Bold
- Italics
- Link
- Image
- List
- Quote
- code
- Preview
Formatting Help

Don't worry about formatting, just type in the text and we'll take care of making sense of it. We will auto-convert links, and if you put asterisks around words we will make them bold.

Tips:

Create headers by underlining text with ==== or ----

To *italicise* text put one asterisk each side of the word

To **bold** text put two asterisks each side of the word

Embed images by entering:
![](https://www.google.co.uk/images/srpr/logo4w.png)
That's the hard one: exclamation, square brackets and then the URL to the image in brackets.

* Create lists by starting lines with asterisks

1. Create numbered lists by starting lines with a number and a dot

> Quote text by starting lines with >

Mention another user by @username

For syntax highlighting, surround the code block with three backticks:

```
Your code goes here
```
Just like Github, a blank line must precede a code block.

If you upload more than 5 files we will display all attachments as thumbnails.

For a full reference visit the Markdown syntax.