Well, I don't wear a helmet. Never will. And I ride a so-called "Death Stem" on my PX-10 and AVA 'bars too. And as I've related before, the only stem failure I've experience was with what? Why a Cinelli 1A, the standard of the world, no? I suppose one could photograph Cinelli and GB stem failures and start a "Death Stem" thread with that, too. I just threw my Cinelli stem in the trash where it belonged. I should have started a website.
I appreciate people's concern for safety. But I must say I firmly resist the increasing tendency to treat everyone as children and everyone aspiring to be proctors and hectoring nannies. Helmet laws, reflectors, those absurd CPSC mandated "safety" improvements to cycle components.. show me they have any impact on cycling safety. You can't. I won't ride on any of the Cirque sponsored rides (or others) because of their insistence on wearing helmets. I suspect AVA stems will be banned next.
I think I'll watch "Vive Le Tour" again.. AVA and Pivo stems (I love those little red painted inserts), cotton caps and if you had a fall, there was that cool "Aspro" ambulance on hand. I think they called it cycling back then.
Peter Kohler
Washington DC USA