Ahead or Quill for new build?

if you wanted a bike that was strictly about performance you probably wouldn't pick up a Mercian (thinking something more along the lines of a Fuji Track Pro...). There is definitely an aesthetic with old lugged bikes and I would say the quill stem does a better job of maintaining that

Cool, sorted then:

Quill with all standard sized steel tubing. (unless you like ahead, and want that)
Ahead with oversized tubing, alu or carbon or anything at all 'performance' looking. (pretty much anything else)

I've had a front loading quill stem, Cinelli frog, it looked a bit weird so I got rid.
Much easier to keep bits paired, stems and bars, also saddles and seatpost, always keep those paired too.

Cool, sorted then:

Quill with all standard sized steel tubing. (unless you like ahead, and want that)
Ahead with oversized tubing, alu or carbon or anything at all 'performance' looking. (pretty much anything else)

That's what I said - 44 posts back...

Sorry Platini, most people have you set to ignore.

;-)

You funny fucker...

Get a nice Ahead stem tho, there are some god awful ugly ones on the market.

Spend a little extra, you wont regret it.

never bought an ahead stem before, though palnning to get something nice - i like the look of some of the thomson's ive seen...

Ahead. you can strip out the whole front end with allen keys. saves you keeping a pair of huge spanners for the headset in your back pocket.

Can anyone tell me why one would choose 1" Ahead over 1&1/8" or 1&1/4"? What are the benefits of oversized headtubes, integrated headsets and the like? I'm thinking about what to choose for a new steel frame, which isn't going to be an outdated affair. It's going to be a quite solid frame, probably sloping TT, fillet brazed, road-fixed.

1 1/8th stiffer, more common, easier to swap stems and this has been covered before...

So, I wouldn't choose 1" over others.

Sorry hippy I knew it might have been done before. Thanks for an answer.

I too and getting a new {metallic blue} Mercian {King of Mercian} made.
23.5 inches {60 cm}, 130 oln, double bottle bosses, silver bands on seat pillar, chromed rear triangle, front ends and fork chrown - vertcial dropouts, braze on for front changer, cable guides on head tude for ergo / sti lever gear cables to stop paint wear on head tube, 1 inch threaded headset etc. Its over £1100 - so cycle to work scheme almost covers it, plus 27 speed campag, brooks saddle and quill stem etc.

The aluminium fork steerer sheered off on my Ribble Cycles Audax frame, I crashed, broke my collar bone - smashed my Giro Helmet - lots of cuts & bruises - could have been worse though - had been going 40 odd MPH down 1 in 7 hills with dry stone walls 2 hrs before - it snapped on the flat at less than 20 MPH.

See George Hincapie's cash in the 2006 Paris Roubaix - much the same as my crash - though twixt Garstang and Gt Eccleston, not Paris and Roubaix.

ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9hqUJIwpRc

So yep, I'm going for a quill stem and threaded headset, not just because I think they look better, esp on a 1 inch fork steerer, but because I feel they are so much stonger and safer than the ahead system.

With the ahead system, all of the force from the bars acts at one point on the steerer, which is hidden by the stem, so you could not even see it if it was begining to crack.

And if the forks crack using a quill you'd be able to see the crack?

hillspecial, while you had a bad experience I am not sure you can make a general statement like that.
Engineers could probably answer it but I will always go for ahead over quill (lighter, and doesn't flex all over the place when sprinting/going up hill/jumping around etc,.)

However, if I was going for a classic steel framed build I would still go quill!

Have searched and wondered why. Is it that ahead don't become stuck like quill stems or is the way that the ahead grips the whole of the riser.

Am interested, not interested in an arguement.

Stiffer, stronger, lighter, more convenient for bar changes etc.

Simply Better. (copyright Fuji)

Quill stems are better if you need to adjust the bar height frequently and easily.

Ahead is better at pretty much everything else. Personally, I find the fact that they're much easier to adjust and maintain a big win.

Where is it stiffer and stronger? On the straigh axis to the bars or on the horizontal along the forks. I think that the clamping area to the forks is larger on the ahead than the quill.

Are bar changes that often? You can get quill stems with two bolt access.

http://www.lfgss.com/thread11859.html
http://www.cyclingforums.com/forum/thread/127026/quill-vs-threadless
Threaded vs. Threadless??? - Road Bike, Cycling Forums

Larger clamping area = Stiffer.

Just think about it technically. A stem that wraps directly around the fork steerer is obviously a far stiffer and tougher set up than a thin little stem that pokes into the steerer and is secured there with a wedge.

Also, no threads > threads. Less mess.

http://www.lfgss.com/thread11859.html
http://www.cyclingforums.com/forum/thread/127026/quill-vs-threadless
Threaded vs. Threadless??? - Road Bike, Cycling Forums

Did a google as well but thought that asking here I could get definitive answers, why its stronger.

I have both type of stems and cant tell the difference. Also I don't change the hieght of my bars once I'm happy.

I have wondered the same thing, on my last build I used a quill to a-head adaptor. The kind of stems I like seems to be ahead.

Road signers clearer prefer ahead

Did a google as well but thought that asking here I could get definitive answers, why its stronger.

I have both type of stems and cant tell the difference. Also I don't change the hieght of my bars once I'm happy.

That says more about your style of riding than it does about stems.

On road if you can cope with the flex quill stems are usable but off road on a BMX they are a nightmare. Constantly coming undone.

The main stiffness come from the steer tube / stem interface. Ahead: clamping over a 1 1/8 (~28mm), quill stem internally clamping and only 22.2 mm diameter. A massive difference. This then gives a larger area to to in turn weld the main part of the stem to allowing a stiffer stem again. Add in the lower weight and higher strength and ahead win. I still think unless you get a custom frame builder to build you a nice stem quill stems look better though.