Hello,

I was wondering if anyone has heated a stem to get a pair of handlebars in there?

I have looked at the past threads regarding 25.4 stems and 26 bars, and the general feeling is no. However, I've heated aluminum hockey sticks for years with little apparent bad effect.

Has anyone tried this with a stem? If I can soften the metal a little and get the bars in gently, will the metal stem, when clamped down still be under too much stress?

Such a nice stem and bars...

Thanks very much for your help.

Whether it's hockey or a broken stem, the end result is broken teeth. Go for it!

Wow, that's a scary project but interesting. If you're really brave and want to give it a go, the method I've learned and always used for properly softening aluminum is to use the acetylene torch with just the dirty acetylene burning and blacken the aluminum with it (make it sooty). Then turn on the oxygen for a proper flame and gently heat the aluminum until the soot just disappears (much more than that and it will crater on you) this should give you some workability with the aluminum. Maybe at this point I should put a legal disclaimer?

I've used brucewiley's method for annealing and re-bending clutch levers on my motorcycles. I'd never trust it on a brake lever though. Keep in mind that with this method you're going to leave the clamping portion of the metal in a more maliable state and it's more likely to flare out and let the bars wobble later on.

And you don't need oxy-acetylene. It works using a candle or a BIC to carbon it up and then a propane torch to heat it until it burns away the carboning.

It's still not a good way to do it since the clamp will not expand out evenly. The side with the arm will stay at the old size. And you sure don't want to heat it until the metal actually softens in the first stages of melting.

Frankly I would not do it. If you really must use THIS particular stem then get it reamed out to the right size. Get a shop to do it or go buy an adjustable reamer in the size range you will need and do it yourself. You can do it by hand since the amount to be removed is so little. Just be sure you apply the torque with as little side loading as possile.

Thanks for the advice.

Too late for the teeth thingy...too much hockey already!