Just wondering, because stems can vary hugely in terms of apparent size and strength. I am tempted to buy a fairly lightweight one at the moment, after all it’s just a little lump of metal, but then I wondered, is it possible to snap one?!? Any experiences/horror stories anyone? I was going to get a Raceface Deus XC stem 70mm for general purpose trail use and my first (very small) attempts at jumping – nothing crazy though.

Had the four Ti bolts in a Cinelli road stem shear-which left me face down in the road!

It can happen. I know of 3 cases of Tune stems cracking/snapping.

You’ll be fine with a Deus unless you’re doing crazy stuff.

i broke a marzochi integrated stem 🙂

jedi, think you definatly fall into the “crazy stuff” category though.

One of my mates kept cracking them but I don’t think he ever actually snapped one. I’ve cracked one of the first on one stems although it’s probably ok for gentle road use.

Cheers guys. Deus it is.

so you wouldnt reccomend an easton Ea70 for use on a 5 inch full susser? i ride it preety hard to be honest…

i’d reckon that easton would be one of your safer bets actually.

I saw a mate twist an azonic shorty stem nearly completely off landing a jump…

Yeah if i was to buy a lightwieght stem for that kind of bike, easton would be top choice. I wonder if 120 odd grams is too light really though…

cant comment o eastons from persona experience, but they do look a bit thin for something that gets quite ot of abuse.

I’ve got deus stems and they’r more than stiff enough to inspire confidence so hope theyr strong enough.

i used to break flexstems reguarly back in the day, in the end i had a protoype to try for them.

Not heard of anyone actually breaking a stem, but I have heard of faceplates cracking. Which is probably more down to excessive and wonky tightening than them not being fit for purpose.

I’ve snapped cranks while just riding along, cant see a reason why stems would be any different. Never managed it though. Bent bars before now, but only in impacts.

yep snapped a stem – having said that it was on a Raleigh Striker when I was about 8

I have a easton ea50 on my heckler, it gets ridden relatively hard (when I get out of London, but that’s another thread entirely… :?) I wonder though would a stem with four bolts rather than two on the faceplate be noticably stiffer?

I have cracked an EA70 stem. It was on an XC race bike and I weighed 65 kg at the time.

Snapped a BMX stem once, coming off a jump. I lunged forward & the bars, with me still holding them, went over & tried to go under the front wheel, the jagged bit of the stem that was left stabbed me in the chest & my face was smashed up a bit from it hitting the front tyre. Probably the worst crash I’ve ever had.

Not broken a MTB stem, but I’ve used Thomson stems for a few years now & I’ve not heard of one of them snapping.

Ignore what some posts say, use a torque wrench as overtightening can cause stuff to snap. I snapped a saddle rail through overtightening

Ignore what some posts say, use a torque wrench as overtightening can cause stuff to snap. I snapped a saddle rail and learnt the hard way

HTF did that happen?

It can happen. I know of 3 cases of Tune stems cracking/snapping.

Oops. I’ve got one of those on my race bike, which takes a beating.

Any more info on how it happened?

One of the Tune ones was mine – very crap really. Used on a race bike for one season. Happened to flip the bike over one day to clean it and spotted a long crack running 1/2 the length of the underside of the stem, away from the steerer tube end. Had been fitted with torque wrench.

Some products are just crap.

GB