Classic & Vintage - Does anyone else have this problem?

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sjpitts
04-13-11, 11:37 AM
I am trying to put together a bike and in my stash of parts I have 7 stems and 4 handlebars, but the stems are all 25.4 and the handlebars are all 26.0.

This is really annoying me.

I thought about buying some sort of flexible sanding drum and seeing if I could sand away at the inside of a stem, but I couldn't find where anyone says that really works. I know there are are sanding drums at harbor freight that would seem like they would work. But I don't know if it would take the material off uniformly enough.

I thought about sanding away on the handlebars, but that will make things look pretty bad.

Is there really no way to make that work?

And if the answer is no, does anyone here want to swap a stem? I don't need anything special, just nothing super short.

And while I am at it, I also need another 26.0 stem for a bike I intend to keep-- that one needs to be nice and 100mm in length. I would trade a bunch for that.

http://i624.photobucket.com/albums/tt327/oldarizona/Misc%20Stuff/DSC_0885Large.jpg

Chris Chicago
04-13-11, 11:49 AM
I had that problem but not in multiples like you. Nice used bars were 26.0 and could not find a second hand stem for them. looked at literally dozens. ended up getting a new one from origin8 iirc.
RobbieTunes
04-13-11, 11:59 AM
I can relate.

When I started using Cinelli bar/stems in 26.4 only, I thought I was complicating my bike life.
Now, I have no doubt things are much simpler this way. I've PM'd you on a set of bars to help out.

khatfull
04-13-11, 01:43 PM
I gotta imagine...

http://www.bikesomewhere.com/images/large/1633A6AF-1D09-7033-84235DC6889AA70E.jpg
http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/images/wiki/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f7/PlusCM128.svg/128px-PlusCM128.svg.png
http://www.woodworkersinstitute.com/images/WC/articles/CarrollMiniDrumSanders/Drum_sanders.jpg
http://rydberg.biology.colostate.edu/Phytoremediation/2006/Erin%20webpage/equals%20sign.gif
http://i552.photobucket.com/albums/jj340/joeyaltruda/LostInSpaceRobot.jpg
txvintage
04-13-11, 01:56 PM
Well said, khatfull. Well said indeed.
miamijim
04-13-11, 02:08 PM
I have the same problem and you can throw freewheel tools into the mix. I have ~15 tools yet I'm always missing one.
sjpitts
04-13-11, 02:27 PM
"Danger Will Robinson"?

I actually think just bending the clamp out to make it fit would be dangerous. And I know people try that.

But it seems like sanding away .3 millimeters from the inside of the clamp would really not be an issue. .3 Millimeters is just not that much material. And actually, maybe you only need to sand away .2 millimeters, as 25.8 clamps were supposed to fit both sizes of bars.

The difficulty is trying to make it uniform.