Can anyone recommend an adjustable stem?

[Big John]

I'm toying with the idea of getting an adjustable stem for my road bike - it's the one I race on. The reason for this is that I want the bars to be in the perfect position for racing so I can get on the drops without reaching too far. I train on a fixed and want the setup to be exactly the same on the race bike as the fixed feels just perfect.

Can anyone recommend a decent quality adjustable stem that won't break the bank and is rock solid when tightened? The concern I have, having never used one before, is that when I'm surrounded by riders in a race and hit a pothole the thing will come lose and let the bars shift - bringing not only me off but a shedload of others.

The one I've been looking at is a Ritchey but I'm open to suggestions.

 

[MacB]

I have the Ritchey and it's done several hundred miles of commuting without any looseness. I also have a BBB version for a new bike, not yet used.

To be fair my intent was to perfect my positioning and then switch to a fixed stem in the correct configuration. The adjustable seems to be solid enough that I've shelved that idea for now.

 

[Dave5N]

A tape measure might be cheaper...

 

[NickM]

Short answer: no. They are horrid things. Heavy as lead, and if they don't creak at first... they will.

They have no place on a racing bike.

 

[Bodhbh]

I used the Richey one for a while, it was pretty solid putting up with some riding off-road and a fair amount of yanking on the bars. It is heavy and could creak if wasn't tightened up absolutely rock solid tho - so as soon as you get the right position, you want to get rid of it.

(they lock in position via a teeth setup - probably a proper word for this - similar to cranks on an axle, once you tighten them up there's no danger of slippage).

 

[Big John]

Thanks fellas. I'm getting the general vibe that I should avoid one if possible. And as for measuring with the tape measure - sure, agreed, and I've already done all that in combination with a spirit level too but I need to effectively raise the bars and other than buy new forks (nope!) an adjustable seemed the logical solution.