I’m not a Luddite. I need to say that as a prelude to the defense I am about to mount for a technology that has been abandoned as thoroughly as the Conestoga wagon. I’ve missed the quill stem for years now for rather selfish reasons. Every time I’m involved in a photo shoot for a bicycle frame with fork, I wish that I was shooting a fork with a cut steerer finished with a beautiful headset, say one from Campy or Chris King. The results from those shoots are so much more satisfying when there’s not six inches of carbon fiber steerer extending from the top of the head tube.

Deep breath … that’s a problem that almost no one else has.

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Shane rode them into the wind and uphill at the Desert Princess—no problem—and then along a roller coaster of ups and downs heeling into a broad reach—big problem—and then downhill with that tailwind, on his pursuitless bars, probably riding in... Shane's equipment of choice included an aero helmet, with a full visor, and Scott 100k bars. You can plug brake levers into it, tape the hand position, and it's just like any other pursuit bar. Shane was not favored in the race, but, as I recall he won the race that day. These bars had no pursuit position at all. It was a 10k/60k/10k and in those days everybody showed up, including all the top triathletes. In one of the great bike rides in multisport history Shane Cleveland pedaled his Hooker Elite with a disc on the rear in the Desert Princess Duathlon World Championship. But, it's more civilized than the Scott 100k bar by a mile.

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