A $9 Part Makes This Possible |TT S1E1| 

“ never being content to just leave a perfectly working machine alone…” …story of my life 😂

I love what he does with this bike. I’ve had a rock hopper since high school and it’s way cool to see that I’m not the only one that modifies them on the daily

As someone who still likes to use old school Oury slip on grip on some of my mtb builds, I’d like to pass along a useful tip for getting them on and off as easily as possible. Dip your index finger in rubbing alcohol and rub it around the inside of the grip. It will slide right on and when the alcohol evaporates they will be on tight. (Don’t try to ride before the alcohol evaporates, they will spin on the bars). To remove the grips, slip a zip tie under the grip in several places and dribble alcohol in between the bar and grip, twist the grip to distribute the alcohol and slide the grip right off.

Love this sort of tinkering content. Really miss it being more regularly on the channel, but keep on doing whatever you want and I'll keep supporting regardless. 💜

I ride cheap, old bikes and quill stem adapters are on most of them. I don't use any spacers because I think they look wrong and really aren't necessary but now I'm thinking of adding them because I watched this video.

The quill stem adaptor has changed my weekends - thank you. I have used it on 3 bikes so far and am loving it.

Whenever I start to think I'm always being too fussy about the way a bike looks & am obsessing over small details I watch one of Eric's videos & feel better about my bike OCD

Thanks, I just looked over at the spacers under my stem. I noticed it when I was buying the bike, then my brain stopped noticing. Now I feel an upgrade coming soon.

I ride bikelife wheelies a couple of the neighbor kids have attempted to ride hard on cheap bikes with quill stems, what I've seen is multiple steer tubes shearing off at weak points where the threads are cut. So be aware that the adapter and bars maybe good but the weak link can be the steer tube in a hard riding situation.

I love the idea of the quill stem adapter, and I know it's superficial, but I really don't like how they look. It's that little tapper that I don't like, might be better if the tapper were just a sharp shoulder.

While converting my 90s MTB I was able t use a 1" threaded fork from a larger bike. The steer tube was long enough to attach the stem directly to is with a shim. I swapped out the headset to a modern one. And cut the steer tube to fit with the # of spacers I wanted. Keep on Tinkering.

It's like Tinker Tuesday, but on a Tuesday!

Ah, the $9 part needs a stem to mount that bar. Your friends could have a discard maybe. I have two 90's MTBs. I am converting one with adaptor to run a second hand pair of VO Crazy bars on a touring bike build. The second I doubled down on a pretty ($$) quill stem with face plate and 24" mm alt bars. Them rare. Adds a certain wispiness to the whip.

I’ve had great success with these adapters including stupid cold weather. A normal stem cap will not fit because the screw size is different. Keep that in mind when ordering color and logo

For years I ran my Surley Karate Monkey with canti breaks with the center pull straddle hanger so as to quickly switch multiple handlebar systems. It took me 1/2 the length of this vid to go from flat to drop bars & roughly the same amt of time to switch to Ssp w/ the use of 2 sets of quick links. I like to remember that setup as the OG "Quiver Killer". PS I hate reviewers that use the term "Quiver Killer"

Thx f/posting! Riser bars with a crossbar are my go-to for this kind of mod. Also used a blocky GT stem which lends a classic bmx-ish vibe I dig.

Big fan of the quill adapters, have used on several builds and will use more. The dimension and VO adapters are my faves.

Back to the flat bars please. The Rockhopper looks the business with flat bars. Easily my favourite and most interesting build. You need to do another one!

Hmmmm, let's see, wonder if I like riser bars? Hahaha guess who? Happy New Year Eric!

Thank you! I've been living this for the past couple months. I got the same $9 adaptor. When I put dropbars on my 90's MTB, I got all kinds of weird steering feelings. I first put on 90mm 35 degree. I just put on 120mm with adjustable angle just to mess around, and that feels much better at 0 degrees. I may try 130mm 0 deg, why? Because I used this adaptor! Fun. This is the content I came here for. Next tackle 3x to 1x crank conversion and the all the odd things I learned about spindle width...

Good to see you back spinster!

I put a set of Mone' Meal Replacement bars with a "slingshot BMX quill stem and STRIDESLAND Barnacle fork on my ROCKHOPPER...wOwZERS!!!

Welcome to the club! Also just added risers to my RH a few weeks ago! Looks dashing!

Love the old-school Spindatt style video!

I think the problem is the headset stack. It's too high. Maybe cut the adapter so you don't have to use any spacer.

You can find shorter threadless stem adapters on amazon for $12-15. Worth it to get the right height look.

this is exactly what i was looking for, thank you

I used one of these to fit my kid into the stoker position of a '99 Cannondale tandem. The rear adapter was for a 25.4 clamp, and was not adjustable to be long enough for his reach. Anything labeled "tandem" automatically is hard to find and exorbitantly priced. I was able to use a 25.4 to 27.2 seatpost shim to fit into the seat clamp portion of the stoker stem for the quill to cinch into. Voila! Longer, higher spot to use any 28.6 clamp stem into. All told it was under $30 for the quill adapter, shim, and cheap 31.8 clamp stem. I put some swept bars in an appropriate width for him and we were off for tandem rides in high style.

Added an adapter like that to my old Schwinn recently. Great little modernizing touch

If the adaptor still uses a quill and wedge, why not just use a regular BMX stem? I love the concept of changing to a riser bar, I've done it to a whole bunch of bikes. As long as I have a long enough seatpost, the riser bars let me use mountain bikes which are too small for me otherwise. I put street tires on them and use them as one-speed cruisers.

Eric, you give me anxaety every time you take apart a bike to build another one.

If the thread on the bolt of the coil stem adapter are long enough, you can also shorten the 1 1/8" part of the adapter itself to fit your BMX style stem without any spacer, reducing the stack, and giving it an even better look buddy :) Still so jealous of this bike by the way.

is this the return of tinker tuesdays?!

Beautiful specialized retro bike 😮, can I have that 😂😂😂

Woah! A preview!!

i have a '93 hardrock with similar bars, a front load bmx stem makes it look a million times better despite the spacers on the quill adapter

Nice tribute to Stridsland. If only that guy had a fully updated youtube channel I,d be even happier 😂

Two things that missing to be looked-as stridsland: frameset and a barnacle fork. Hehehe

Ah Spindatt, I've missed this channel and the maybe the youtbube gods suggested this because I've always had a softspot for the rockhopper. I even saw a slightly but not much younger rockhopper today, locked to railing but abandoned and stripped of its wheels, and thought 'if only I could Rockhopper this..'

fun garage riding!

Those new handle bars nearly killed me them and the wheelie bins

Awesome video

Surprised this didn't happen before especially given on the bmx content lately.

Also, if you happen to own (like I do. Two, actually 😬) an odd duck retro mtb with a 1-1/8 QUILL stem, they make quill adapters in that size too. Headsets are harder to find though 😉

I cut a bit off the top of my adapter to get the slammed look.

U can cut the stem adaptor , original size is only for tolerances.

Great video

you know what, it looks cool.

Nice video Eric.

Whilst watching this, I was literally opening a package containing a quill stem adaptor for my 91 Diamondback that I'm building up👍

I like the voice over style here!

I’m pretty sure most of the really good Stridland builds use old GTs with 1 1/8 headsets. Don’t think you’ll ever get an adapter to look quite as good. That bike does look fun as hell tho🍻

That's my O.G. Rockhopper! & I kinda liked the factory bars & gooseneck stem :-)

I have several brands' quill adapters, the Profile Design versions sit in a bin. A bit heavy because of its length and steel wedge, Velo Orange's version is elegantly beautiful, ripe for cutting. The problem I have with the PD version is the top cap outer diameter, it functions as an actual top cap which is not only superfluous on a quill stem, it's a service hindrance and annoyance. If/when the 'top cap' is the same OD as the quill adapter (28.5 mm) the quill adapter can stay wedged in place in the steer tube, a stem with or without an installed handlebar slips off and on. Notice that on all your regular quill stems, the 'point' of the quill is always at the back. There's a reason for that (that I've not yet figured out), I always point my quill adapters to the back. See 0:58. At 1:25 you have it exactly backwards, at 2:58 you have it almost correct. Details, it's where we find genious. Spacers are of superfluous, aesthetic use only in these applications, they have no functional purpose. Live with it, embrace it for being what it is. It's your bike's way of saying; “I know what I am and I'm proud of it”. Or cut (maybe even carve or engrave) your own spacers out of black ABS or white PVC pipe, paint is optional. I did mod the 'top cap' on one of my PD adapters by turning the OD down with it chucked in a drill and turning against a grinder. It ended up functional with a ground swirl finish. Note that this is not a Profile Design rant, I have, love and use several of their handlebars, I'll probably buy more.

The only thing about this 'hack' (yawn) is that it doesn't offer the one real advantage that clamp on stems give. It won't stop the headset coming undone. I rode bmx (and all other bikes) pre ahead set (which was dia-compes patented name for it) and headsets would come undone continually. Otherwise there is no advantage to doing this unless you can stop the top nut unwinding.

A set of riser bars or a riser stem does a lot of good on the 1990s bikes. BMX risers seem to work the best because of the sheer amount of rise you can get. 👍 A word on the quill adapters, you can find them with more exposed space if you look around. They’re a bit speedier though! Nitto, Velo Orange, probably others out there.

Looks cool to me. If nobody is lining up to promote what you are doing, you absolutely should do it yourself and not waste a second feeling bad about it.

When I decided I wanted to run a modern stem on my old road bike I took the long way around this and got a 1 inch headset and then found a threaded 1 inch fork with a long steerer tube with a shim. While I think it looks a little better I don’t think it was worth all the trouble. Oh and I now have a blue fork on a tan frame.

Used them half a dozen times and they work 👍

Yeah, we love stem carrots 🥕 🎉

It can work even better with an old style 22 mm BMX Quill Stem and then just using an motorcycle handle bar. Done it with my klunker commuter and the looks of it amazes me every time i´m looking at it. ;)

Man did you snipe the last 1 inch fork from them, under me? 🤣

best part ever. most of my vintage roadbikes have them. my Fakenogo is instantly that much nicer with it

That looks like a 22.2 mm handlebar so you could use a BMX quill stem.

Built mt 73 falcon into A 1×9 gravel bike that way works great .

Wow you went to the Grand Canyon for the sound Echo Echo

My specialized has bullmoose bars.

You have both doors! 👍

I converted my rockhopper last summer to riser bars. Turns out I also don’t like the look of the bmx stem in combination with the stem adapter. But it really changed the felling of the bike. Hope I’ll find a solution to make it look better…

I put Jones HBars on my 86 Rockhopper.

looks bad ass

What's up dude? I see RU-vid decided to show you some love for a change and finally post something. How you been man? It's been a while since I've scene a post. Anyway, to show you how the universe works! I have a Bianchi Nyala I'm restoring. I've been fooling around with this machine for over a year, and it's time to do something. My question is, what size quill stem should I ask for? The outside diameter threading is 15/16ths and the inside diameter is 7/8ths of an inch; or is there a standard? Glade to see you back! Peace!

I have the same bar on my Bianchi ss. I have it set with a normal mtb stem and a shim to hold it down. Makes it look more appealing compared to having the bmx stem.

Man, I wish I would have known about this earlier. Maybe they have just recently become popular but I remember trying to find a different stem length for my DIY singlespeed and only turning up with $70+ Nitto stems. The worst thing about the old 'pinch clamp' stems was having to unwrap your handlebars to swap them out. Terrible.

I saw the center pull will the cable going through threaded stem on the donor bike. How would you switch out those bars? Do you have to cut the cable?

I don’t put my front break cable behind other cables due to turning it pulls the front one being it’s not the cable from that bike it fits different. Not exact length

“My goose neck is stuck!” We legitimately called them that.

Clap snap friends!

The Grouch never looked so good!!

That's it. My roommate get's a ghetto gravel bike built from the old Crossbike I've got standing around so he won't have to ride his goofy dutch city bike to university

What are the light coloured tyres looking some for my build ?. Cheers

Dope

The streetstomper makes a welcome appearance 🤩

I think you could remove the top cap of the adapter and just cut it (the thicker 1 1/8" section) like you would a normal steerer tube?? Then you wouldn't need the spacers? Never tried this but dont see why it wouldn't work

What brand of bars? I have a 98 Gary Fisher Wahoo I think they would look great on.

Is there a quill stem adaptor that doesn't require removal to change stem?

That seat is flying so far UP. I need to have my bars equal to seat height, at least.

Thank you for getting straight to the point!

Ever see those caps that cover the lock nuts?

yo yo yo. i just got a 95' rockhopper ultra and its has a 1 1/8" stem. it was just not thread less. i switched it to thread less and it worked perfectly.

awesome! so how do you know what size quill adapter fits, can anyone help? :D

Are those SK tires 26"? I can't find them anywhere!

For any part you can think that needs an adapter there probably is one. At least in my experience.

🤙

What’s wrong with quill stem? Ur not going downhill mtb with a 90s mtb anymore.

Hi there! I bought some motor riserbars from a weird brand, looks kind of big, i think they're 820mm ish, what's the width of this one you are using? nice swap tho! always fun to swap things knowing it'll work with the things you got laying arround hahah

I think it's the color that throws off the look. Nothing else is black and then wham huge chunky black bars.

This has likely been covered at nauseam…. No spacer is needed under the stem when using a quill adapter.

I think the problem is the seat, not the bars/stem. Something about it doesn't look right aesthetically

I was just looking at these yesterday for a 90s Raleigh I just bought. Which is there more common size between the 22mm and 25mm adapters?