I am aware of the recent thread regarding handlebar/stem fit issues, but am still wondering how fast either component is likely to fail if I cram my 25.8mm dia bars into the 25.4mm clamp on a stem I'd like to use. The emminent Mr. Brown's voluminous website states that 25.4mm clamp area diameter is the "ISO standard" for road bars, but you sure wouldn't know that from what's on the market in the US. Everything is 25.8, 26.0, 31.7, or 31.8mm. A fair number of bars, including the Ritchey Pro bars that I have and like the shape of, are 25.8mm. At least in my perusing of stems there are few, if any, in a 25.8 clamp dia.
Yeah, I know I can buy a Nitto bar in 25.4mm dia, but I don't like the shape.
So, what's the deal? Are 25.8mm dia bars "...designed to be usable in either ISO (25.4) or Italian (26.0) size stems", as Sheldon says on his site, or not? BTW, I know they work fine in 26.0mm stems because I have many miles on that arrangement.
