Brian

Incorrect. Bolts don't exert pressure, the stem itself does. But you can't have even clamping pressure when using a 25.4 bar in a 26.0 stem, so you've introduced the possibility of stress risers. Uneven clamping pressure may or may not be an issue. But you won't know until something fails.

BassNotBass

You've got to be kidding me... right? There are people who honestly think that a shim that they buy at a bike shop will work better than a DIY shim made of the appropriate material and of the appropriate thickness? Go to building renovation and construction sites, dumpster dive and pick out aluminum and copper flashing and other sheet metals. You can accrue quite a bit of shim material for free and at the same time help keep some of it out of landfills.

carleton

You've got be kidding me...right? You expect people to know where an active construction site is, trespass to go dumpster diving with metal shears ($20+) and dial calipers ($20+) to find a sheet of metal of the right thickness, then take it home and measure and cut it properly in order to save $10 and a trip to a bike shop to buy a Nitto shim. Riiiiight. That's waaaay more reasonable.

Yo!

Brian

Not that I want to question any moderator's comments, but you totally overlooked the part about keeping some material out of landfills.

clubman 

Yeah..it's a philosophy book. Who needs that interfering with our point of view. After all, people know everything. Ask anyone anything! Except for shims of course. Which is why you should read ZAMM because it answers the shim question, if nothing else.

4 million copies in 27 different languages...yeah, it sux.

Scrodzilla

Hey - Nickelback may sell a lot of albums in a bunch of different countries too. As a result, are we going to try saying they don't suck?

Brian

What about Counting Crows?

Scrodzilla

Let's not exclude "new" Metallica.

Brian

No one buys Metallica albums any more.

Scrodzilla

from Wikipedia:

"St. Anger debuted at the top of sales charts in 30 countries, including the United States Billboard 200. Upon the release of the album, St. Anger met mixed critical reviews. In 2004, the lead single from the album, "St. Anger", won a Grammy Award for "Best Metal Performance". The album has also sold over 2 million copies in the US alone and was certified 2x Platinum by the RIAA"

"Death Magnetic debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, selling 490,000 copies in just three days of availability.[55] It is the band's fifth consecutive studio album to debut at number one, making Metallica the first band to have five consecutive studio album releases to debut at number one. The album also had the highest first week sales of any Metallica album since 1996's Load.[3][56]

In Australia, Death Magnetic was the fastest selling album of 2008, selling 55,877 copies in its first full week of release.[63] Death Magnetic was Australia's highest-selling record in one week since Australian Idol winner Damien Leith's The Winner's Journey, in December 2006"

clubman 

The music industry is a money grubbing, soul sucking juggernaut that shoves all kinds of ****e music down our throats. Philosophy books from the 70's couldn't call EMI. It had to have some merit to sell as many copies as it has. You don't have to like it but "that book sucks" is just trite and likely means he didn't or couldn't finish reading it .

It talks extensively about shimming handlebars. And it doesn't suck, not in the least, ever.

I'm still on the thread...

Scrodzilla

clubman - I was kinda just kidding. I liked that book a lot, even if it never was on Oparh's Book Club list.

Brian - you're just trying to suck up 'cause you just got your ass handed to you.

clubman 

I'm ornery tonight...don't mess with my already hazy recollection of the 70's.

Brian

Hey, he referred to the two of us. Apparently, we're a team.

Al Criner

Cut a shim from a Coke can. You only need a shim that is 0.6mm thick.

Just for the record, I don't think you will save Mother Earth by re-cycling 2 square inches of 0.6mm aluminum, but at least it won't cost $10.

Scrodzilla

I meant by me.

Brian

Ok...

Scrodzilla

I didn't edit, just put some stuff about Australia in bold.

At any rate, this thread is about "properly" shimming bars. Wouldn't the "proper" way to shim bars be to use a "proper" shim?

It's 10 bucks. Is that REALLY too much ro spend to do something correctly? Why people love to make easy **** difficult is beyond me.

Brian

They've banned me from editing. Seriously.

Scrodzilla

Exactly.

BassNotBass

LOL! So you did take the hint, followed the link and learned about sarcasm. It's good to see you're trying your hand at it.

jonnycomelately

Ok well as the person who started this thread, I'll just jump in here and say that my initial question was whether the coke can thing worked or not, since the trusty mechanics at the lbs were all in agreement that an official shim was a waste of money, and that I'd be fine with can. But clearly I wouldn't be. So now I'm going to get a set of digital calipers, tin snips and bolt cutters (I'll need those when I break into the construction site). I'm sure that once I own about... hmmm... 5 bikes with mismatched bars and stems and seat tubes and posts then this investment will pay for itself. Thanks guys!

kringle

I've used a can several times for a 25.4 -> 26 shim. Never had a problem.

BassNotBass

You know why? Because you paid attention to what you were doing and took a common sense approach to it. That's the difference between success and failure.

I'd have to guess that the naysayers are either talking without actually having tried to make a shim or have done so and failed. In the case of having failed it's a lot easier for them to blame the material rather than the inability of the "user". Right?

We're talking about a shim, people. We're not discussing anything like casting cranksets or extruding frame tubing out of beer cans. I will tell most mechanically competent people who come in to the shop for a shim how to make one for themselves. However there are some individuals who I will sell a $12 shim to with no questions asked... like the guy who comes into the shop who, before buying a pair of sunglasses asks if they are CYCLING sunglasses, like what Lance wore at the blahdeblah race in whogivesasquat. If it would make you feel any better I would even do you the favor of charging you double so that you really feel that you're getting your money's worth.