Stems
Browse used BMX stems for sale from riders across the UK. A BMX stem clamps a 22.2mm bar to a 1-1/8in steerer, and its reach — usually somewhere between 48mm and 53mm — decides how far your weight sits over the front wheel. This category covers top-load and front-load stems for street, park and race builds.
Top-load or front-load, and which reach?
A top-load stem clamps the bars above the steerer, keeping them close and adding a small amount of height; a front-load clamps ahead of the steerer, pushing the bars forward and sitting lower. Street riders mostly run short top-loads such as the Odyssey Lumberjack, because a bar that sits back and high is easier to throw. Race and trails riders more often want the longer, lower front-load position for a stretched-out stance under power.
Is my knocking front end the stem or the headset?
Hold the front brake and rock the bike forwards and back with a hand on the head tube: play you can feel there is the headset, either loose preload or a worn bearing, not the stem. A stem problem announces itself differently — bars twisting in the clamp under load, or a creak that only appears when you pull up on the bars. Fix the headset first, because riding with play there keeps wrecking bearings whatever stem you fit.
What wears out on a used BMX stem?
Bolts and threads do the failing. Check all four faceplate bolts turn freely and that no heads are rounded, and look into the threads in the body for galled aluminium or a fitted helicoil. Then check the faceplate gap is even top and bottom when tightened, that the bar clamp bore is not ovalised or deeply scored, and that no cracks run from the corners of the steerer pinch slot. Ground-down edges on the outside are common on a street stem and matter far less than the state of the threads.
Will this stem fit my bike?
Almost all BMX runs a 1-1/8in steerer and a 22.2mm bar clamp, so most stems and bars interchange freely. What varies is stack height and how much steerer you have left above the headset — a tall top-load on a fork that has already been cut short can leave too little tube in the clamp. Check the faceplate is the one that came with the body too, since faceplates are machined as a pair and swapping them between stems leaves an uneven gap.
What is a fair price for a used stem?
A sound alloy stem with all its bolts sits around half of new, and a missing bolt should take more off than it sounds like, because the replacements are a specific length and head. Buy new when you want a reach the used listings do not cover, or when you are already replacing several BMX components and the postage on separate small parcels starts to outweigh the saving.