I think what he means is that on some French stems, the back end of the extension was hollow, i.e. there was an opening at the back through which one could see the expander bolt inside the quill. This one doesn't have the rear opening, but seems otherwise identical. I'm not too paranoid about AVA stems, though I'm suspicious of AVA bars. However, if I were afraid of AVA stems, I wouldn't consider this one any safer than the "open" type.
Regards,
Jerry Moos
-----Original Message----- From: Chuck Schmidt [mailto:chuckschmidt@earthlink.net] Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 2001 4:22 PM To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Subject: [CR]AVA "death stem" ID
Anyone care to ID whether this is or is not the AVA stem that was known to break? I don't have any first hand experience with breaking the style shown in this auction.
Chuck Schmidt
South Pasadena, California