Spent 15 years torquing stems before the bars, and a guy named Vic at the Riverside swap meet finally called me out

Jamie Smith · 2026-10-16T18:55:04.155681+00:00

I was building up a bike at my bench in Sacramento and had the stem bolts snugged down before the bar was even centered, like I always do. Vic watched me for a second and asked if I liked chasing creaks, because clamping the stem first means the bar never sits right and you fight the faceplate for the rest of the build. I tested it on the next 6 bikes and every one that had the bar centered first went together cleaner. How do you all sequence it when you're doing a full build from the frame up?

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Spent 15 years torquing stems before the bars, and a guy named Vic at the Riverside swap meet finally called me out | Bicycle Mechanics - Talk Freely