the sci guy 

Talking the thin or multi-sized pack or the rubber shim strips thingys you put around the clamp of your brake levers or light or GPS mount so it gets tight on the handlebars. I have 1 left and it's too squishy and it's allowing my brake lever (riser bars type) to move/get crooked.

The things I've seen on Amazon are handlebar/stem shims, or specific sizes clamps or something. I need just the little rubber grippy strips.

Haven't had a chance to ask the local shop - but ours are mostly worthless Trek stores now.

jadmt

have you tried cutting up an inner tube? would work for lights and mounts but not sure anything would really work for brake levers.

Moe Zhoost

Yep, strips of old inner tubes work well. You can custom size them to width, and thickness is just a matter of how many wraps you do.

RCMoeur

Rubber shim thingys? I think I have a bag full in my Box O' Spare Light-Up Stuff, but they might be doohickeys or thingamadoobers. I'd have to look.

The prior suggestions to use cut inner tube chunks are good ones. If I don't have a well-fitting thingy, generally I'll use either a tube piece or a wrap of electricians' tape, cloth handlebar tape (not the cushy plastic tape), or leftover cloth rim strip.

Chuck M 

For thicker shims, vacuum cleaner belts cut to length are good.

dsaul

Rubber shims for lights and GPS mounts are fine, but I would never use them on a brake lever. Get the right lever to fit your bars or use a metal shim.

andrewclaus

I agree about shimming brake levers. If absolutely necessary, try a strip cut from a can.

RickJay 

ck out one of your auto parts stores for gasket material, cut you strips to size needed.

Iride01 

I'm having trouble with your statement of using it for your brake levers. Other than the pad that some levers have built into them on one side, I've never use a rubber shim strip all the way around the bar for the levers, whether just a brake lever or STI. Their built in clamp bands have been able to take up the slack on every size handlebar I've ever put them on.

I'd want the direct contact of the clamp to the bar so they aren't squishy and move when force applied to them. You likely will have to use more clamping force to hold them stable with a rubber shim under them and you might over torque and strip the clamp mechanism or break the clamp band itself. So if marring is what you are worried about, just use one layer of vinyl tape.

For other things on the bars, like out front mounts and lights a rubber shim is fine. But brake levers sometimes have a lot of force put on them.

FBinNY 

Next time a balloon bursts. Save the shards. When cut to size, balloon rubber is excellent high traction material.

The thinness is a plus censuses sized clamps will still fit, and being so thin it won't squeeze out under pressure.

Of course, if you don't want to wait for a party, you can buy balloons cheaply enough. Also other things, like latex gloves will do the same job.

Bill Kapaun

Or airplane tires-

ClydeClydeson

DO NOT use rubber shims on any mechanical part of your bike, brake levers, shifters, handlebar/stem clamp, ets. Rubber shims can be used for mounting accessories to your bike like lights or bells or baskets or whatnot, but not actual components of the bike. Generally, bike component clamps are very well fitted to the handlebars they are designed for. If the clamp on your brake levers, for instance, don't fit your bars, you are using the wrong brake levers. If you can find a metal shim of the right thickness it is likely that can be used, but do not use rubber or plastic or cardboard or any other 'soft'; material as a shim on such parts.

rumrunn6

sometimes the bar diameter is too different than the clamp & all the extra rubber or rubber-like junk I can squeeze in there isn't good enough. I think the best thing is to get a clamp designed for that diameter bar

SurferRosa

Even then, it's a kludge.

zandoval 

Don't forget ya can use O-RIngs. You can get them in a variety pack of multiple sizes and they also come in Silicone and Neoprene...

the sci guy 

Thanks for the info and thoughts about the safety, but I’ve used these levers with these bars for well over a year with those rubber shims without any issues. Then I switched to different bars, but I’ve switched back to this riser bar setup but the rubber shims I had before I’ve used elsewhere.

The bars are Nitto For Shred, and the levers are Origin8 cross levers. I don’t remember what size exactly the version of the levers are because I bought them in a shop and they weren’t labeled, but the clamp area is a bit bigger than the grip area diameter where I mount them.

I don’t have any spare flat tubes at the moment but I may go that route.

the sci guy 

Here’s some pics I took

CliffordK

I had one brake lever that wanted to walk down the bars, which slowly tightened the brakes.

I determined the problem was that the lever didn't fit flat on the bars causing a slight wobble, so I found something to shim under one end of the lever. Probably electrical tape.

In the case of the OP, I was groaning about the shim concept. But, if one considers two parts of the brake lever. The lever body, and the loop around the bars.

As long as the brake lever body can get snugged up tight against the bars, and doesn't wobble like mine did, then shimming the band shouldn't make much difference. It should hold it all secure, and perhaps would protect the bars and provide an anti slip surface.

andrewclaus

You can solve the fit by getting a "real" brake lever! That's an in-line lever, meant to mount closer to the stem on a 26 mm drop bar. And they're meant to work on road brake calibers. If you're using it on a V-brake, the pull ratio isn't optimum.

bblair

I don't remember the measurements, but I do know that current bars are larger than older one. So what? Well, it is a big deal because I have found that no one makes Wahoo mounts for the older bars. And I have a few older bikes that I occasionally ride.

So yea, left over bar tape and electrical tape on top. I found that using inner tubes was too squishy and never really got secure enough.

rumrunn6

you can also use electrical tape or hocky stick tape. it's firm, not really compressible. wrap, wrap, wrap until you get the diameter you want. if too much just unwind a little. they aren't great options cuz the glue is sticky & might be messy. maybe regular bar tape?

the sci guy 

At the time they were the only levers in the shop and they were small which is what I was looking for to keep things as low profile as possible.
It is used with a Tektro r559 road brake caliper.

grumpus

That's an auxiliary lever for dropped bars which are 15/16" diameter while your flat bars are 7/8". So you'll need a 1/32" metal shim if you insist on using incorrect parts.