Road Cycling - Carbon fiber handlebar slipping....need suggestions.

I just finished my first ride with my Kestrel EMS Pro SL handlebar and I could not get the thing to quit slipping. I have tightened my stem as much as it will tighten and it still slips. I have the 26.0 mm bar and I am using the factory Giant aluminum/carbon stem. I really like this stem so I do not want to replace it if I don't have to. The aluminum bar that I had before never slipped.

Does anyone have any tips to get this thing to stay in place?

You could take a piece of old inner tube, trim to the stem opening size and wrap the bar in it and re-tighten. The rubber should give enough grip to hold the bar in place.

Wow, I would have never thought of that. Only idea I had so far was to use a piece of sandpaper.

Thanks, still open to suggestions though. Just in case neither of these work. I figure that one of them will though.

You could take a piece of old inner tube, trim to the stem opening size and wrap the bar in it and re-tighten. The rubber should give enough grip to hold the bar in place.

You might want to add some adhesive to the rubber as well, just in case. Don't rule out using other products as shims as well (aluminium, plastic, quality duct tape of the metel variety, etc)

Also, make sure the stem and bar is super clean. See if you can get a replacement........I don't know wha it is called......the part you screw to the stem that holds the bar (clamp maybe??). It may be out of spec (stretched) if you fiddled with it a lot before you replaced your old bar. It may give you a little less slop with a new one.

Oh, you can also a band of skate board tape (available at skate shops for pennies) sticks to anything, comes off easy, and is durable as heck.

Thanks, I'll check into the new clamp. I only tightened it up one time before and that was the day we built the bike. Still could be flawed though.

The grip tape is a good idea too, be easier to get to stick than the sandpaper.

I second ehenz's thought on grip tape from a skate board shop...it's always worked great for me too!

i'd go with the grip tape as well.

easton now uses something similar to grip tape in the clamp section of their EC-90 bars. the early ones had nothing there, and there were reports of slippage.

i'd go with the grip tape as well.

easton now uses something similar to grip tape in the clamp section of their EC-90 bars. the early ones had nothing there, and there were reports of slippage.

Use duct tape. If it can't be fixed with duct tape, it's done. Replacement time.

:D

Well I just picked up some grip tape from a local skate shop. Going to try it out here in a little bit.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed. :D

Holy shnike's Batman I have never felt a handlebar that felt that solid. The grip tape worked like a charm. I only used 4 pieces about 1" x 1/8" on it and it worked perfect.

Thank you very much for the tip. No matter how much I try I cannot get that bar to slip!

I'm considering putting a couple of strips on each of my mtb stems now. Be nice not to have to worry about the bar slipping when climbing or in a real hard sprint. It doesn't happen very often anyway but I think the grip tape would completely eliminate the chances of it happening again.