Ritchey Carbon WCS Riser problem, levers/shift not clamping.

Hi, has anyone else had a problem with these bars before, noticed immediatly that someones levers weren't clamping on a set of Ritchey risers.....

Verniers say about 21.8mm on the clamping area.....

Are these just malformed bars...

The lever body has cracked because they've been just banged on and tightened right up aswell!! Yay

I've never had that problem with those exact bars, but I've noticed variations in lots of bars I've owned.

Try cutting up an old inner tube, and 'shimming' the clamp. The rubber will protect the bars from marking too.

Alternatively, you could venture down the tried and tested 'coke can shim' route?

Or send the bars back to the shop (if you bought them new) and ask for a replacement pair perhaps?

Yeah, that was the main option was the shimming.

The problem is that the levers that cracked are new XT discs..... both levers!

I was going to recommend sending them back, was wondering whether to advise they seek warranty? would that even be applicable?

Parts fitted damaged due to improper bar size, would that even be a warranty issue?

I'd send them back if they're only 21.8mm. That's 2% under spec. The fit of brake and gear levers is safety critical, not to mention damaging to the components, over torquing bolts etc, and poor fit of clamps leading to stress risers against the carbon structure (not good).

I had a quick look around, but couldn't find any published standard tolerances for handlebars. It's a different application, but Deda recommend 0.05-0.15mm clearance for seatposts. Nominally, of course, bars are 22.2mm (7/8" in old money). If they were typical 7075/6061/2014 etc. drawn seamless aluminium tube, I'd expect +/-0.1mm (+/- 0.004") at worst. -0.4mm is terrible.

It's probably down to resin shrinkage, as they'd have been bladder-formed in a female mould, If they're all like that, the mould allowance wasn't large enough. QA should have picked that up with a simple go/no-go guage.
Is the centre bulge undersized too? 25.4mm or 31.8mm.

All the best,