Fettling required

wgwarburton

Hi,
Returning to the office after a lunchtime expedition my handlebars (well, the left side) sheared off where they meet the stem. Not had this before, happened pretty quickly! Wierdly, whilst descending, not while hauling on them to climb.

It's going to be an interesting ride home.

Cheers,
W.

Clever Pun

eek.. good luck

gaffa tape... lots of gaffa tape

Harveytile

Just try to look non-plussed and answer all looks with, "What? Never seen a cyclist?"

EKE_38BPM

Now I've heard about your problem I guess I'll have to add a welding kit to my saddle bag.

MUST
HAVE
EVERY
POSSIBLE
EVENTUALITY
COVERED

rjsterry

This might be useful

http://www.planet-x-bikes.co.uk/c/q/handlebars

Not immediately, obviously.

Oh, and BJUK may have some tips.

wgwarburton

EKE_38BPM wrote:

Now I've heard about your problem I guess I'll have to add a welding kit to my saddle bag.
...

Not at all- handlebars generally come in pairs, so there's redundancy...

The brake still works, BTW, though again, it's redundant since the bike is fixed... Well... it's not fixed at the moment, obviously, it's broken (but still fixed).

It needs to be a fixed fixed, so I can get my (cycling) fix.

I think it's easier to call it a fixie... then it can be a fixed fixie instead of a broken fixie. that's much clearer!

Cheers,
W.

Cafewanda

This lunchtime expedition involved a sojourn at the pub?

Alphabet

this is making the creaking from my handlebars more of a worry :?

rjsterry

Creaking is one thing - mine have creaked for years - but any sharp blows to the bars can cause a failure some time later.

Fireblade96

this is the very reason I have a brand new set of bars for my MTB in the shed, waiting to be fitted - my off back in August bent the existing bars significantly and I don't trust them.

P-X have cheap drops, Merlin have cheap flatties atm.

andyrr

Loosen handlebar bolts.
Shift bars through the stem so that you now have equal portions of the bars extending to the right and left hand side.
Tighten bolts.
Voila.
And maybe reinstall the brakes etc from the sheared portion of the bars onto the new left hand side of the bars !
Will take a matter of (many/few) minutes to achieve this.

wgwarburton

andyrr wrote:

Loosen handlebar bolts.
Shift bars through the stem so that you now have equal portions of the bars extending to the right and left hand side.
Tighten bolts.
Voila.
And maybe reinstall the brakes etc from the sheared portion of the bars onto the new left hand side of the bars !
Will take a matter of (many/few) minutes to achieve this.

Yes. That's what I did once I'd made it to the train, so that I had a better/more comfortable option for the ride home. The only complication was that the bars have a larger centre section for the clamp, which wouldn't close tightly enough on the other parts of the bar. I used a thin zip-tie as packing to get a decent grip.
I didn't re-mount the brake lever- it's a drop-bar lever and the protruding section was flat. It's only the rear brake, anyway, so not technically required on a fixie.

I'm on the summer fixie today- no mudguards- this morning was dry but the forecast for tomorrow suggests I might use the tourer...

The Bike Station is open for parts on Wednesday, so I should be able to replace the bars for a few quid (plus new tape, I expect). Don't know whether I'll flip & chop them again, I'll see how it goes.

Hey-Ho.

Cheers,
W.

Clever Pun

oh buns.. I saw someone wearing an endura overshoe on Saturday that had what looked like a reinforced toe area.... might be worth looking at

not the right thread but I don't care

kelsen

This happened to me once when sprinting up the Croydon Underpass. Thankfully no cars behind me or might have ended up as roadkill!

How old are your handlebars? I'm wondering if there is any way of checking handlebars for imminent failure?

essex-commuter

Alphabet wrote:

this is making the creaking from my handlebars more of a worry :?

Remove bars from stem, clean centre of bars and inside of stem (where the bars go through) with white spirit or similar to remove all traces of grease / dirt. Replace bars in stem, torque bolts to correct fitness. Should remove all creaking and make you stealth again when approaching another rider from behind :shock:

wgwarburton

kelsen wrote:

This happened to me once when sprinting up the Croydon Underpass. Thankfully no cars behind me or might have ended up as roadkill!

How old are your handlebars? I'm wondering if there is any way of checking handlebars for imminent failure?

They were decades old. My guess would be that they came on my old Carlton, which suffered a rust-induced chainstay failure a few years back. I acquired the bike (used) in the early 90s, I think, and it probably dated from the late 70s. The reason I flipped & chopped them for the fixie was that they had been bent in an off some years ago, so cutting them down got rid of most of the bent bit.
They didn't owe me anything, that's for sure, and had been well-abused over a long period.
The break shows signs of oxidisation, so it seems very likely to have started as a crack and spread with use. It's possible that loosening the bars, sliding them sideways and cleaning the surface would have made it visible, too, but I don't know how long it would have been there for before failing....?
It wasn't a catastrophic failure- the bike was still rideable, the brakes still worked, I didn't even fall off, it just came away in my hand, so I steered off the road and stopped.

Thanks for the note on the overshoes, CP, ... I'll have a look!

Cheers,
W.

beverick

I had that happen on the flat bar hybrid a couple of years ago.

I did the trick the earlier poster mentioned - slid sufficient of the bar through the bar clamp to allow me to get home.

I blamed an uncontrolled sideways dismount earlier in the year :oops: .....

Bob

vorsprung

I would have suggested a broom handle
Glad you made it home

kelsen

WGWarburton wrote:

kelsen wrote:

This happened to me once when sprinting up the Croydon Underpass. Thankfully no cars behind me or might have ended up as roadkill!

How old are your handlebars? I'm wondering if there is any way of checking handlebars for imminent failure?

They were decades old. My guess would be that they came on my old Carlton, which suffered a rust-induced chainstay failure a few years back. I acquired the bike (used) in the early 90s, I think, and it probably dated from the late 70s. The reason I flipped & chopped them for the fixie was that they had been bent in an off some years ago, so cutting them down got rid of most of the bent bit.
They didn't owe me anything, that's for sure, and had been well-abused over a long period.
The break shows signs of oxidisation, so it seems very likely to have started as a crack and spread with use. It's possible that loosening the bars, sliding them sideways and cleaning the surface would have made it visible, too, but I don't know how long it would have been there for before failing....?
It wasn't a catastrophic failure- the bike was still rideable, the brakes still worked, I didn't even fall off, it just came away in my hand, so I steered off the road and stopped.

There might be a pattern here! The bike I was riding at the time was an 80s Raleigh Record with handlebars dating from that era I guess.