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Archival Review of WTB StemWTB POWERBAND CRO-MOLY MOUNTAIN STEM
Look, we're not sure how viable this stem is, but it's the only stem that natively, without shims, permits you use a 22.2mm or 7/8" outer diameter handlebar. Most mountain stems we have covered have a 25.4 or 1" inner binder diameter, though many specimens of the best tubing come only in the .8740" diameter. The PowerBand quill tube is made from cro-moly steel tubing with a 1.92mm wall thickness. The quill tube is broed from the top to a depth of 12.5mm enlarging the diameter from 18.18mm to 19.74mm. This enlargement provides a ledge around the interior perimeter that holds a machined from aluminum rod insertion cap. This cap merely sits in the quill tube to hold the expander bolt. The cap has a hole drilled to cradle the bolt head and allow the bolt shank to pass through down to the wedge. The binder tube has a 1.51mm wall thickness. The 75.5mm long binder tubehas its outer diameter tapered for the last 11mm on each end. Both the binder tube and the quiil tube have a hole drilled through one side. This hole is faced into the extension tube when they are TIG welded together to relieve built up heat and stress from the welding process. The binder tube has a 22.2 inner diameter and is sawn through to separate into two halves. With a handlebar in the binder, the halves are held together with two small aluminum clamps. Machined from billet, each are drilled and tapped for the clamp bolt, then sawn through to make the clamp mechanism. The steel clamp bolts have 5mm x .8mm threads are 22mm long, have a 4mm hex fitting and weigh 4 grams. The steel expander bolt has 8mm x 1.25mm threads is 130mm long has a 6mm hex fitting and weighs 48 grams. The wedge, made by Hsin Lung, is extruded with light machine work to drill and tap the threads. The PowerBand has a Grey finish, is made in the 1" diameter only and comes in three lengths, 120mm,135mm, or 150mm. Each of those sizes is available in two rises +5 degree or +20 degree. The weight of PowerBand with a 5 degree in the 135mm length is 325 grams. This stem is no longer made, but when they were, we sold them for $99.99 |