I have heard differing opinions on this, so I thought I would ask some experts: are stems like this good, or maybe not so good, for use on carbon composite steerer tubes?
The part that I am wondering about are the cut-outs on the steerer tube clamp. Some folks claim that the metal edges on such cut outs can possibly dig in to the steerer tube and then create stress points. What are your thoughts? (fyi, not asking only about this exact stem, more asking about all similar AL stems that have cut-outs like this)
When I was working for one of the bigger stem manufacturers, our testing didn’t see any conclusive data to suggest either way was definitively better. There are downsides to both the cutout and non cutout designs, and damage that is the direct result of the stem tends to come from failures to maintain bore alignment and concentricity, both of which can be harder to maintain with the larger surface area of the non-cutout designs, especially if wall thicknesses are decreased to attain weights that are competitive with cutout designs.
