Perhaps a silly question - when installing bars...
 

When installing bars on old aluminum stems....(with out removeable faceplates) what's the trick
to get the bars through there with out scratching them up? I'm a bit worried to pry open the stem.
Doesn't aluminum fatigue or risk cracking when you do that ? Any tricks of the trade ?

Make sure you have the right combo of sizes first, pry open the stem just enough and go slowly.
Try all angles to ease the bars in and GO SLOWLY! :D

Close your eyes and jam them in there. Use a sledge hammer if you have to.

grease em. seriously.

right size grease them.

yeah they pretty much covered bases

like said above make sure you have the right size--
I wouldn't mix 26.0 bars with 25.4 stem for example--
some do but if that **** cracks then you will too.

Nitto makes a tool for spreading the stem temporarily
to let you slide it in. I use a large blunt wood chisel.
Wedge it into the gap where the stem opens for the bolt
with the bolt out and GENTLY pry just a smidge. You only
need a few mm of clearance. Bars go right in.

Another trick on some stems is that if both sides of the
stem around the bolt hole are threaded then unthread
the allen bolt until the end is in the opening between the
two sides of the stem. Then put a penny or another coin
over the hole--thread the bolt back in. Because it can't
thread into the hole and tighten it has the opposite effect--
it forces the stem open slightly.

Don't force anything too much, if it is too hard you may have the wrong
sizes. I had a shop once sell me an old triple T stem that was the
wrong size because it was NOS and they didn't really know what it was.

Just use a 26.4 mm stem with 26.0 bars. They slide right in.

Yeah! Even after you tighten it! :innocent:

Just had this problem.

I used a vice grip. Get covers for the grip itself so it doesn't mar it up. Put the stem in sideways, and use a large standard screwdriver to pry the ******* open. Once you get it on and realize that you pried it open too much, use the vicegrip to close it back up!

It helped me get a set of ergo road bars through a non faceplate quill stem.

I'm not sure how safe this is. Any input on that?

bending aluminum that much = BAD BAD BAD FAIL BAD

But seriously folks, I've used both the coin trick and a chisel, as K-V describes. Both methods work well. Remember that you want to bend the stem as little as possible to still allow you to get the bars in.

Well to be honest, it wasn't any more than the coin trick with the chisel, it was just a bit more permanent.

What type of stem are you talking about with the coin trick? I cant picture it in my head.

There's your problem right there.

Like this:

http://www.sjscycles.com/store/itmgocciaquilstembig.jpg

aluminum shouldn't be bent and bent back, stretching and springing back once the pressure
is removed is different. Neither is particularly good for it anyway.

like the pop tab on a soda can.

Why not just use the right tool instead of f***ing up your stem with a screwdriver then trying to fix it with vice grips??

Well, it took alot longer than I thought, but I finally got them out. greased them up, and used a
small wooden wedge to open it up just a bit. I was suprised at how much I had to rotate/move them around to get them out.....now if I can just get them back in there without scratching my buffing job.
Thanks fellas

Why not wrap half of the bar in masking tape or blue painters tape and slide that half through the stem? peel it off once it's through and no scratches!

Thats what she said...

So the answer to the problem of the bars barely fitting is to make them even bigger?


BRILLIANT!!
http://foreveranoob.files.wordpress..../brilliant.jpg

doesn't he mean to wrap the bars to protect them--i.e. the portion of the bars
other than the clamp area--the part you want to stay shiny?

Hahaa, yes that is brilliant thinking indeed. :lol:
Obviously he has actually never tried it out in reality. :rolleyes:

What's the name of that tool? I'd be happy to follow that advice, but when all I get is a picture...well that's not the most specific thing ever.