>>1997317what you're saying doesn't make sense
quill stems and cantilever brakes don't really wear out, so there are just as many of them floating around as there ever were.
You're basically just not clued into a local market, good local markets being in places where nice bikes were bought/sold in the 90s. I suggest you either make friends or move.
Just because there aren't people putting effort into selling parts (and the ones that do want high prices) doesn't mean that those parts don't exist.
There is also a not insignificant renaissance in cottage parts and I regularly buy lightly used nitto etc stems for less than half the price of new, all that depends on is again, a healthy bike community with people who occasionally drop money at blue lug and such and then regret it. So again, make friends, online or in person, or move. The market you want to exist doesn't not exist it's just not visible to you.
As for riser stems not existing, they do exist, there are numerous varities still in production and again, they don't dissapear, or break, so what you're saying doesn't make sense. Possibly what you're seeing is an increased -demand- for these things, so you're no longer able to swoop as easily on forgotten stuff off boomers, but that doesn't mean the death of a middle class, it's actually a resurgence of it.
