I have an elderly hybrid with a 1″ threaded steerer. I’d like to put wider bars on this; anyone have any thoughts what the best way of converting from a quill stem to 31.8 clamp bars is?

you’re mixing up your steerer and bar clamp diameters here, can you get some wider bars to fit the clamp in the existing stem?

or get a quill-ahead adapter, clamp a ahead stem with a 31.8 bar diameter in there

Aye, that’s what I thought. Not keen to use a shim though and Google-fu is failing me – can you get quill adaptors in 1? or 1″ threadless stems?

Just fit wider bars with a 25.4mm clamp area and use existing stem?

here’s a 1″ quill to a 1 1/8″ ahead stem one

Quill stems went out of favour about 15 years ago when 25.4mm bars were the norm, so chances of finding a 1″ quill stem for 31.8mm is pretty remote. Quill/ahead adaptor and choice of stem and bars would be the best way to go

This is an old Kona Hahanna with a quill stem adaptor – works really well if a litle heavy.

Those adaptors work fine. I’m running them on my TT bike and a track bike with no issues – including shimming for the TT bike. Despite beautiful looks, the loss of quill stems was one of the most significant moves to proper bike fit. I don’t miss them. Apart from the old school headset, you would not notice that the track bike didn’t have a modern stem.

Stupid question about the adaptors – do they need spacers or does the stem just clamp on?

No spacers required – just chuck it in there. My old Hahana has one too (not as pretty as the one up there ^^^).

All set; even found a polished alloy stem (FSA Gravity Lite of all things).

The 685mm EA70 riser might look a tad odd on a 20+yo hybrid mind you…