Originally Posted by
LarDasse74
I especially like any strategy that has load-bearing parts of a bicycle secured with electrical tape. For weight savings, I also recommend removing the handlebar bolt at the front of the stem and cinching it down with a small zip tie... or better yet - a green twist tie that came with a box of garbage bags!
These strategies are especially helpful for people who are tired of having teeth! Hooray electrical tape handlebar shims!
Dude, the round "clamp" part on brake lever actually don't even grip the handlebar very much. All it does is pull linearly down on the brake-lever body. It's the edges of the brake-lever body digging into the handlebar that holds it in place. If you were to look inside the brake-lever body, you'll that there's a HUGE gap on the upper part of the "clamp" that doesn't even touch the handlebar; it's not squeezing and gripping the bar like a stem-clamp or a hose-clamp.
What happens when you put the bigger "clamp
strap" around a smaller bar is that the nut on strap may bottom out against the inside of the lever-body before it's pulled tight enough. So by shimming it with
ANY material to fill space, it will allow you to tighten the bolt enough to securely anchor the corners of the brake-lever body against the bar. Heck, I've used newspaper, PowerBar wrappers, rubber shims from Cateye light-brackets, balsa-wood from a model-airplane wing, and they've all worked just fine!