ultrazenith
Senior Retro Guru
- Feedback
- View
I have a nice cromo handlebar, made by Nitto for a small independent brand from Japan. I bought it because it's rare these days to find a modern wide bar with a standard clamp size, made of quality materials.
The problem (if it can be called that) is whoever designed the bar made a mistake and the final diameter of the bulge is slightly oversized, at about 25.45 mm instead of 25.4. Maybe they forgot to take into account the thickness of the paint. But whatever.
To fit it to steel stems I've had to prise the stem open to get it in, and I assume the steel should be forgiving enough to conform to the larger bar. I've also got it to fit into alloy stems with a removable face plate, although I found when I try to remove the bar the face plate was stuck on and seemed to have locked on. With an alloy stem I'd be concerned about over stressing the faceplate due to it being bent so far out of shape.
An alternative should be to make a non-standard shim to use the bar with a 31.8 stem.
What should I do, apart from buy a new bike?
The problem (if it can be called that) is whoever designed the bar made a mistake and the final diameter of the bulge is slightly oversized, at about 25.45 mm instead of 25.4. Maybe they forgot to take into account the thickness of the paint. But whatever.
To fit it to steel stems I've had to prise the stem open to get it in, and I assume the steel should be forgiving enough to conform to the larger bar. I've also got it to fit into alloy stems with a removable face plate, although I found when I try to remove the bar the face plate was stuck on and seemed to have locked on. With an alloy stem I'd be concerned about over stressing the faceplate due to it being bent so far out of shape.
An alternative should be to make a non-standard shim to use the bar with a 31.8 stem.
What should I do, apart from buy a new bike?
