Discord Chromo Peeper

Out of the smoke clear, should have more mid May. 

Finally finally work has been completed on 50 new Chromo Peeper stems.  We moved production to a small stem builder in Taiwan who has been brazing stems for a quarter century.  We did not want to move production to Taiwan, but our local builder Alex Meade had built a few hundred of these for us, and was frankly getting bored.  So Alex worked directly with this stem builder to get the specs nailed, and the stems are made in the same way with the same tolerances and attention to detail that Alex used.  

Discord stems have a theme: short reach, lots of stack. We’re obsessed, an obsession that transcends trends. Trendy stems are next year’s fodder for the scrap metal collector. Our short stems are based on stems from the turn of the last century. They’re based on 120 year old designs, and simply updated for use on today’s bikes. Short stems worked well back then, and they work well today, allowing you to get your bars higher and closer, so you can actually ride in the drops, if you want. No more hand pain. No more back pain, aching neck, stiff shoulders.

All good stems should be stiff, like good handlebars and good rims. Give should come from your bar tape or gel under the tape, your arms, and the air in your tires. Stiffness means more steering precision. I used to think a soft, floppy stem, like a Nitto Technomic, and some old 26mm clamp bars were the best way to be comfortable. And maybe, before tubeless tires, and tire pressures under 60 psi, flex did contribute to comfort. Now they don’t. They’re just in charge of steering your bike. And that should be done in the most direct way possible. Minimal flex.

Enter the Peeper. Steel is the ideal material to make a stem out of it. It’s strong, and it comes in tubes, so all you have to do is get the tube milled to the right outer and inner dimension. Then of course, braze it together and slot it and all that. It’s actually a lot of work, but there is less waste than there is with virtually any other way of making a stem. Steel is also tough, strong and when it fails, it fails safely. Cracking not snapping, bending not breaking.

Strong enough for off road riding, as long as you are not doing Enduro / DH stuff.

125mm Stack height (that's bottom of stem to center of the handlebar clamp).

50mm is the minimum amount of exposed steerer tube (that means above any headset spacers you may jam under the stem) allowed on this ride. Max insertion is 95mm. (This is with wiggle room, please don't push it!)

Using the diagram above you can calculate what length bolt you need. A is 125mm. B is the height of exposed steerer tube, that means measuring up from the top any headset spacers you'd like to use to the top of the steerer. C is the depth to the bottom of the star nut, typically 25mm (this is approximately how deep a Park Tool TNS-1 sets the star nut). (A-B)+C= Minimum Bolt Length needed to sufficiently engage with the star nut. **Note that the bottom 24mm of the bolts are threaded, so there is some wiggle room with bolt sizing.

Go here to nab the right bolt for the job

US made by Alex Meade of Alex Meade Bikeworks, a one person shop in Mass

Brass Brazed Chromoly

Stainless Steel Bolts

31.8 bar clamp. If you use a shim for smaller bars, use carbon paste between all surfaces and a two, NOT 4 piece shim.

Not for bikes with carbon steerers or carbon bars, sorry!