Rounded Bolt on Grips.

wilkij1975

Can anyone help with this?

I have just tried to fit some lock on grips and one of the bolts rounded. Is there any way I can get the bolt out without damaging the thread and grip?

Cheers All

nicklouse

what grips are they?

wilkij1975

nicklouse wrote:

what grips are they?

They are Imperial grips from MTB-Direct. Its a 3mm alan bolt. I only tightened it to 4nm and wanted to undo it to move the grip slightly and it rounded. I contacted them and all they could say is that I fitted it wrong! Great customer service there!

nicklouse

which Imperial grips? model 1? 2? or 3?

I guess 2 or 3.


2 or 3 drill the head off. unless you have something that can cut the bolt in the split area.

wilkij1975

I think they are model 2 although I did order Reverse grips! Too bad I didn't notice their error before I tried fitting them!

I'll see what I can do about cutting in the gap. If I manage to cut the nut will I be able to remove it once the grip is off without destroying the thread?

nicklouse

Ok to explain what normally causes this problem is the friction between the bottom of the bolt head and the ring. so once the head is off the remains of the bolt can be removed as the friction is gone.

but it can be a right royal pain in the butt. and can take a long time to get them out.

other options are trying to knock the grips off and then squeezeing the rings together a bit and then unscrew the bolts.


also have a go with a torx bit hammered in after having let some lube soak in there. but keep the lube off the rubber.

wilkij1975

OK. Thanks for the advice.

And I thought lock ons would be better than usinf Fairry liquid

nicklouse

they are but most people do not grease the bolts heads and then over tighten the bolts.

I did it myself years ago.

wilkij1975

Yeah, I didn't grease. I didn't think I'd over tightened. I only went to 4nm. I wanted to be careful as I had read about bolts rounding. You live and learn I suppose!

Any recomendations for new bolts? Ti maybe?

krav

My brother had this problem a couple of weeks ago with his Peaty's and rather than wait for me to come home he just cut his bars off his new Stumpy Elite haha.

What i would suggest is as the screw is knackerd anyway would be to cut a little notch in the bolt head on the side and with a hammer and small screwdriver just gently tap the bolt round in an anti clockwise direction. You may need to make 3-4 little notches.

wilkij1975

Sounds like a good idea. Might be able to turn the bolt head into a flat head screw?

I'll ge it out one way or another. Just p***ed off at the level or lack of customer service at MTB Direct. But thats another story.

redvee

I had this with some Outland lock-ons and although they were tight enough on the bars not to turn they were loose enough for me to pull off by hand, yes I scrated the bars but under the grips nobody see it. Once off I squeezed the rings and had enough slack to undo the bolts.

k2rider

try getting a torx driver thats about the same size, think it should be a a t15, the points are less prone to wearing like an old allen key so it should pick up on the corners that havent rounded too badly.