Bars Won't Tighten

[Polara Pat]

I've had a few bikes over the years where no matter how much torque you put on the bolt that pinches the handlebars, they won't stay tight. Mostly I think this is because the striations on the bars to give them some grip in the clamp is simply worn away. I have tried crappy shims in the past but was wondering if there is a better way or a better shim and don't say buy new bars.

Thanks, Pat

 

[Bicycle808]

Bars don't need knurled/scored surfaces at the clamp point to be tightened securely; I've got a few bmx bars that are smooth throughout. One possible cause is off-sizes between bars/stem...I've seen folks try to do a 25.4 in a 26.0 stem, and vice versa, and they'd slip in either case. But, most common cause is a stripped stem.

 

[Polara Pat]

Yah, this particular scenario is on a Swing Bike. A friend had suggested finding the ideal bar angle then putting a small tack weld or two on the underside of the clamp. This pretty much dedicates the bars to the stem though so I'm not a huge fan of this repair either.

 

[Bicycle808]

Hmmm. If it's cheap/jenk stuff, who cares?

 

[SCHWINNRAY69]

This is what happend to my '65 Sting-Ray. Like you say said, the striations were worn away. I ended up putting some small nails in there to give the stem something to crunch down on. Hasn't moved since.

 

[Polara Pat]

This is what happend to my '65 Sting-Ray. Like you say said, the striations were worn away. I ended up putting some small nails in there to give the stem something to crunch down on. Hasn't moved since.

Funny, these bars had a wood screw going through the stem and bars to keep them in place but I swapped out the stem for a nicer piece. Maybe I'm going back to the ghetto repair.

 

[LowpowerD]

I used to have a lot of trouble with ape hanger bars on bikes. No matter how tight I torked the bolt, they'd always slip. This is what worked for me: Make some shims from aluminum cans.

 

[mikeeebikey]

What he said!^^^^^^^
Beer can works the best!
Cutt strips the width of the stem, open the clamp slightly, slide in as many layers as you can.
BMX double clamp will also fix it.

 

[jerrykr]

If it's just the striations are worn out, take a center punch and a hammer and put a whole bunch of dings in the striations. If it's worn worse than that, the beer can shims are said to work well.

 

[Polara Pat]

Unfortunately this may take several attempts so I may end up getting pretty drunk. I'm up for the task.

 

[SILVERKINGPC]

Red LockTight....works most of the time..