1973 Holdsworth Mistral Stem size - help please!

[BikeyMikey]

Hi All,

I've recently bought a lovely (well, i think it's lovely, anyway) Holdsworth Mistral frame and am busily trying to track down all the right bits and pieces to build it up for next year's L.Eroica.

The one thing that's thrown me a bit is the stem which was originally a Fiamme (according to the '73 catalogue) and needs to accommodate the Fiamme bars which are 26.4mm. I've pretty much given up trying to find one on ebay and had turned my attention to a Cinelli of similar vintage, which seem pretty easily available.

Having bought the wrong size bits and pieces many times, I thought I'd better measure the inner diameter of the steerer tube before I bought - and it doesn't seem to be the standard 22.2mm quoted for most vintage stems - equally it doesn't seem to be 22.0 which is the other standard size!

Any clues? If anyone has a similar bike, what size fits yours please?

Thanks in anticipation,

 

[Midlife]

Hi

I thought everything this side of the channel was 22.2mm steerer tube, certainly I swapped and changed a multitude of stems in the 70's and don't remember any problems at all

I'd try for a nice Cinelli early 1a from the early 70's

Shaun

 

[BikeyMikey]

Re:

Hi Shaun,

thanks for the reply.

That's what I thought too, but as a recent convert to old road bikes I'm paranoid about buying the wrong sized bits.

Thanks for the suggestion too - that's pretty much what I had in mind too.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Cheers