the unofficially cool MTB drop bar thread

In 1984 Britain, Mountain Bikes were very rare and even pictures of them were difficult to find as there was little MTB coverage in the cycling press. The main source of images were in handouts and brochures from bikeshops who were awaiting the first examples to roll off the production lines.
However, around the time I bought the F.W Evans there was one book by Rob Van der Plas called the Mountain Bike Book. On pages 58 & 66 there are photos of Jacquie Phelan with a dropped barred Cunningham. So in theory I could have been influenced.

In reality, the bars on the early mountain bikes were very wide, which was both wonderfully different but not very practical for the London traffic or the narrow gaps between the trees in your average English forest. So drops seemed the best solution for my new, multi-functional bike.

Hi, I am new here but would like some expert advice on this.
The stem is similar to the LD and I would like to use it on a cheap built for light offroading.
The stem attaches to an adaptor with a seat clamp(?)...
Does anyone have an idea if it would work? kind of kelly's take off style!

(sorry I have to post twice before be able to add links)
pics here:

Who made those stems?

Bit late to this one.

NO not cool, not ever !

Looks like an old boy who someone's bought a BSO for insisting he
has drop bars.

That stem looks very promising got a link?

RANS:

http://www.shoprans.com/proddetail.asp? ... B0067%2D68

http://www.shoprans.com/products.asp?cat=16&pg=3

I take it it works similar to this... but I'm not sure how that works either.

I think that's just like a seatpost. The lower part of the stem is slotted. The collar clamps the upper part by pinching the slot closed.

The RANS system looks similar. Judging by these pictures, they use a pair of adjusting collars and a clamp to set the headset preload. The LD part then slides into the top of the steerer like a seatpost, and is clamped with a second collar:

http://www.shoprans.com/proddetail.asp?prod=BPBK0093