I bought this stem in chrome from flatlandfuel a little over 2 months ago. I experienced a little slipping of my bars in the first month and following weeks, but nothing terribly major (I was used to bars slipping on me constantly in my very short lived street days) and I attributed most of the slippage to the glossy finish on my bars over the knurled area. After some sanding on the clear-coated clamping area, I saw a little improvement.


A week or so ago, when I disassembled my front end to install some new forks, I noticed that the two "U-bolts" were not parallel anymore. It looked like my compression bolt had squashed them a few degrees closer to one another. I don't torque the crap out of my compression fork bolt (this often puts pressure on the headset and inhibits the buttery smooth rotation we all seek in a front end), but it really seemed to have done a number on this stem. I figured it wouldn't be under warranty according to St Martin's policy, and I don't think this particular design of stem deserves another chance on my whip.


Just wanted to put the word out about issues I had with this part. I am now the proud owner of a 30mm Jungle Rider Hermit stem with no more issues in the front end. Anyone else have similar or different experiences with this same St Martin X26 stem?

I didn't think about that at the time. I have heard of riders using masking tape and stuff of that sort. My main concern with the stem now is the u-bolts aren't parallel anymore, pretty much totaling the stem. Thanks for the suggestion though, I will have to remember that next time I have problems with the bars slipping.

Ive got the same Stem and have been riding it for 2-3 years i think. Apart from being a bit anoying to mount I havent had any issues. Do you have your top bolt really tight or something?

Billy

After giving this stem a go, I think i can come to the same conclusions as byke has about compression stems. I was having several problem with the front end, and this stem was just one of the contributors. Stems with really small offset are more difficult to come by these days (kind of like zero offset forks with steerer tubes longer than 160mm) especially ones not with the same principle of design as this one and the Redneck FLT, etc.

Dang! I bet that put you out of commission for a while. There are definitely some sharper-than-safe edges on that stem. What stem do you run now?

What offset is the flatware stem? I haven't seen any on the market in several months at least

http://flatlandfuel.com/odysseyflatwarestem.aspx

26mm - out of stock, and i think they wont be any made anymore... there could be one floating round, at danscomp or  kunstform, or one of the Indonesian stores.... or pick up a second hand one