Under the black paint a stainless steel stem

[MEENI]

Was looking in the parts box for a replacment stem for the latest m2000 1 1/4 inch
Had the original stem from my blue m700 laying around and started to sand it down with scotchbrite for a respray.
When i got started there was a beatifull stainels steel finish under the, broke by uv light black finish.
Heared that this was common in the early 90,s .... parts providers sprayed over their silver stock in trendy black.
In the picture you can see that i,m not there yet but i wil definetly wil leave it like this
In the past i may have thrown a few of these away ...........

 

[black lightning 1987]

That looks similar to the Alico made stems, very common on mid 1990s road models. In the 1996 catalog they have the titanium look finish on the R700-R2000, and are painted black on lower models. Looking at the spec pages, the titanium finished stems are listed as Alico while the black ones are not. The Alico featured an especially light wedge.