Control Tech Control Road Aluminum

Price Paid:  $45.00 at Performance

Favorite Ride:
fast bunch ride

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

Summary:
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.

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.

Similar Products Used:
TTT Mutant

Price Paid:  $15.00 at Ebay

Favorite Ride:
Camino Cielo, SB/CA

Bike Setup:
Columbus Bianchi w/ steel fork.

Summary:
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!)

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

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

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

Bike Setup:
Trek carbon, 105, mavic helium

Summary:
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.

Strengths:
Strong, lightweight

Weaknesses:
kinda ugly

Similar Products Used:
generic aluminum

Favorite Ride:
Mt. Diablo

Bike Setup:
0deg 12cm on a Trek 2100.

Summary:
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.

Strengths:
Light, good looking, reliable, stiff.

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

Similar Products Used:
Sycip, SR, ControlTech threadless.