Paul Components Clamps with New 6-Bolt Boxcar Stem for 7/8" Bars

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Flashy bike news announcement! Today, Chico's Paul Component Engineering, known for its machining virtuosity and producing beautiful parts for bicycles since 1989, announces the release of a new limited edition 7/8-inch (22.2mm) boxcar. We announced the stem.

According to Paul Components, “7/8-inch handlebars seem to attract the most rowdy riders.” So they “strengthened” the already popular Boxcar stem. The new stem, like all Boxcar stems, is made using 2024 alloy, which has higher fatigue and yield strength than 6061.

Paul Components says it prefers to let function and material properties dictate the form of its products. Sure, some products look different, but they say that's because they want their products to “work as great as possible.”

Paul Comp New 22.2 Stem Silver with Crossbar

That being said, we have confirmed that the clamp is extra thick on this limited version. Additionally, he added two high strength stainless steel T25 Torx type faceplate screws. To be honest, with the addition of the faceplate screws, it looks very strong and practical. They know it's overkill, but they wanted to make sure this was the last of his 7/8-inch stems they'd ever buy.

The origin story of the 7/8 inch boxcar

From their website:

“This stem was designed from the ground up to be stiff, strong, and light. We went through several design iterations and believe we've arrived at the optimal combination of these three principles. Extensive Real World Mechanical tests have proven this to be one strong trunk.”

“In terms of torsion, the rounded box shape is about 25% stiffer than the competition. In terms of strength, we experienced no problems after 1,000,000 cycles of above-normal service stress.”

“How did we manage to be so lightweight while still being so strong? We undertook a thorough computer design process, then used the highest quality American-made 2024 aerospace alloy to create a 0.002-in. Precision machined to a tolerance of 0.002 inch (i.e. 0.002 inch). Really perfect for stems). More than 20 types of end mills, drills, saws, and taps are used to make one stem. ”