Help! I have had a P-Series built up by my local Cervelo dealer and have gone with Profile’s Aeria Stem and their Wing 20C base bar. The problem is that despite several attempts and careful re-torquing the stem just will not clamp the base bar firmly enough to hold it firmly in place over bumps etc. After several very scary moments my bike shop want to swap the stem for a more conventional, large frontal area, 4 bolt solution of some sort.
I really like the low frontal area and streamlining of the Aeria stem and would like to keep it if possible, so does anyone have any suggestions?
Alternatively are there any other 17deg, low frontal area stems people can recommend?
Common issues being common, did you use carbon paste for the stem-bar interface?
TriRig’s Sigma X is an good option, albeit pricey.
Not tried this combo, but had a mare with the extensions on my bike to start with. 100% try carbon assembly paste - I’ve used the finishline one, as in that’s the one I bought years ago and I’m still only half way through.
Also, and this may be controvertial, I’ve also in the dim and distant past used some tubtape. I can’t see how a wrap of tub tape or even a wrap of electrical tape would cause issues, but would end up with a good strong fix and I can’t see how it would add any stress points.
In all honesty, I wouldn’t recommend this as a solution. I had no end of issues with the TriRig stem slipping on my steerer tube. Trust me, you don’t want your bars pointing off to one side when you go over a bump in the road at high speed!
What was more concerning was TriRig’s suggested solution of adding more and more torque to attempt to solve it. No thanks, not keen on splintering the steerer either!
YMMV