Home | Stems

Control Tech Control Road Aluminum Stems

Average Rating: 4.25/5
MSRP: $ 54.95
# of Reviews: 4

Write a
review

More Products from Control Tech

Product Description

26.0mm clamp. Stiff and light weight. Aluminum.

Review Options: Sorted by Latest Review | Sort by Best Rating

Reviews 1 - 4 (4 Reviews Total)

User Reviews

Overall Rating:

Value Rating:

Submitted by STurner a Road Racer from Falls Church

Date Reviewed: August 12, 2003

Strengths:    Reliable, strong, light, stiff, & way-cool looks.

Weaknesses:    It's a pain to get the bars around the clamp. Use spacers if you don't slam the quill.

Bottom Line:

I LOVED my Control Tech. Stiff, light, way-cool looks. I used it for going on 7 years and never had a problem, never. A word of caution however. About 2 years ago, I raised the stem and was told that I wouldn't need spacers. I recently removed my stem to discover that over the past 2 years, the stem has slipped down the quill about 2-3 mm. YIKES! The only thing keeping me from replacing the stem with another Control Tech is my desire for the convenience of a clamp on the handle bar.

Expand full review >>

Favorite Ride:   fast bunch ride

Price Paid:    $45.00

Purchased At:   Performance

Similar Products Used:   TTT Mutant

Bike Setup:   Hollands, Dura Ace/Ultegra 9-speed

Overall Rating:

Value Rating:

Submitted by BergMann a Recreational Rider from Flemington, NJ

Date Reviewed: June 20, 2002

Strengths:    Stiff, cheap, and light -- always a great combo!

Weaknesses:    Wide clamp on ergo bars & 1/2 inch vertical adjustment range.

Bottom Line:

An all-around great stem!

This stem is _worlds_ stiffer than my old Cinelli XA, and is 100 grams lighter (my 120 mm weighs 240g)!

As remarked in the other reviews, this stem has a deeply-recessed anchor bolt, but anyone with a standard 6 mm hex key and a crescent wrench (insert long side of key and use crescent wrench to torque it down) can deal with this.

The actual range of adjustment on the quill from the min. insertion point to bottom of the stem is 1/2" -- which means that at max. extension your handlebar will about 2" above the headset locknut.

I also had to insert a washer and pry the clamp open (see Control Tech's instructions) to get this stem's wide-ish clamp around the tight bends of my Salsa ergo bar. Those in a hurry would be best advised to get a removable face-clamp model (hard to find in a quill stem these days though!)

Expand full review >>

Favorite Ride:   Camino Cielo, SB/CA

Price Paid:    $15.00

Purchased At:   Ebay

Similar Products Used:   Cinelli, Syncros, Deda, ITM, etc.

Bike Setup:   Columbus Bianchi w/ steel fork.

Overall Rating:

Value Rating:

Submitted by Thom a Recreational Rider from Philadelphia,PA

Date Reviewed: April 28, 2000

Strengths:    Strong, lightweight

Weaknesses:    kinda ugly

Bottom Line:

A good overall stem. It's strong and lightweight. Control Tech has a reputation for generally solid, reliable products. I got mine on sale at Performance for forty bucks. At that price it's a good value. I would not pay the retail price which is about fifteen bucks more. Stick with the classic road stems. Don't consider it an upgrade unless you have a piece of garbage for a stem.

Expand full review >>

Similar Products Used: generic aluminum

Bike Setup: Trek carbon, 105, mavic helium

Overall Rating:

Value Rating:

Submitted by Alex Abbas a Road Racer from Berkeley, CA

Date Reviewed: April 7, 2000

Strengths:    Light, good looking, reliable, stiff.

Weaknesses:    Steerer bolt is _way_ recessed. Doesn't fit around the curves of all bars. Limited rise adjustment.

Bottom Line:

This is a time-tested, popular stem, and there's a reason why it's popular. The construction is great, with nice clean welds and good engineering. The weight is nice and low, and it's plenty stiff. Comes in the standard variety of extensions in both 0deg and -17deg rise. Make sure you have a nice long allen wrench to install it, though... the steerer bolt is very recessed (to save weight I think). Also, on some anatomic handlebars you have to hold the one-bolt bar clamp open a little extra while you insert the bar.

The biggest limitation is that the steerer portion is short, so you can only raise it so high. If you want it for an aggressive position then it's probably great, but for more upright riding it might not be high enough.