I'm a newbie to biking. I got this bike from bikesdirect and got some tools to ensure brakes were installed correctly, spokes were torqued, etc. I rode the bike for a bit and was annoyed how the shifters were rubbing my fingers. I noticed today they were installed upside down. How do I flip these without cutting off the handle grips? The shifter is made of metal and won't spread enough to slide off the bar without removing the grips.
by Safe_Operation_3212
23 Comments
undo the bolt that tensions the bracket that wraps around the handlebars with the right size screwdriver, slide the grip off, then slide the shifter off.
Are you sure you didn’t install the bars upside down?
Loosen the bolt on the gear shifter and the brake lever and slide them away from the handgrip. Slip something under the edge of the grip and spray some isopropyl beneath the grip to slide it off. Remove brake lever and shifter.
if you have an air compressor with a blower nozzle, then move the brake lever towards the center a little more and insert the top of the nozzle into the grip (the end closest to the brake lever mount, not the other end of the bar). Blow the air and pull with your other hand and it should slide right off.
If you don’t have an air compressor, you likely will have to cut them off and replace them. Grips are not terribly expensive, and you can replace them with “lock on” style grips that are held in place with a little hex set screw.
Super easy. There are screws tightening down the shifters and brake levers. Usually, the whole assembly will come off when you loosen them.
If not, you’ll have to take them off over the end of the bars Loosen them, take them off and turn them around. I don’t see tightening screws on the grips so try to rotate them off or use some soapy water to get them to slide easier. If that doesn’t work and you have access to a compressor, you can inject air under them and loosen them that way. Worst case scenario, you’ll have to cut them off, but they are cheap so don’t worry about it.
BTW, your brakes are upside down too. Maybe you could take the entire bar off and turn it around and you might be fine.
Carefully lift the inside edge of the grip and squirt some soapy water in there, then work the water in by twisting the grip and it should slide off.
Wrong way round, are you British by any chance?
Damn
Try just turning the bar so the shifters and the brakes are on the correct side.
Your brake lever is upside down to. You may have installed the handlebar incorrectly.
You’re a noob but you’re going to know how to make sure things were done correctly, like spoke tightness? You know how to tighten and adjust spokes? You just gonna crank down on them until they feel good and tight?
And now you’re asking how to get brake levers off without cutting the handlebars off? When you clearly installed the handlebar backwards and upside down.
Maybe put down the tools and pay a professional to do it before you cause an accident.
Your handlebar is upside down, unfortunately it from the stem and turn it over. The first pic should be facing up.
So I’m gonna give you some advice here, take the money you saved from buying at a bike shop and take your bike to a bike shop and pay them to build and tune your bike correctly.
I’ll also put it this way, if your bike is not put together correctly, you can break things, and I don’t mean bike parts. You can get seriously hurt and that costs way more than a build and tune.
Ignore all the rude comments, we all start wrenching on a bike somewhere so no shame in not knowing. Like others said your handlebars are upside down, let us know if you need tips on fixing it (although I do agree with some, I wouldn’t mess with the spoke tension if I were you)
Unreal.
The bar is upside down, but you can remove the grips with compressed air. You move the brake lever back a bit, then stick the air right in between the grip and the bar. The grip will come right off.
Your handlebar is inverted. Do not remove shifter/grip as others suggested.
Remove stem faceplate, rotate the bar 90⁰ vertically so that shifter in photo is on the right hand side (as you are mounted on the bike), below the handlebar.
For real? Bars are on upside down!
I’m mot trying to be mean, but if you fitted the bars upside down then it’s likely that your pedals aren’t tightened properly and goodness knows what else. For safety’s sake I recommend the bike is checked over by someone who knows what they’re doing
You installed the bars upside-down.
OP, please take this to a bike shop.
i am concerned about what *else* you may have done to this bike. statements like “spokes torqued” worry me. there are plenty of things on bikes you don’t just turn until you run out of thread, and then torque to a spec. there are things you *tune*. it is an art of fine adjustments, and *spokes* are about balancing tension evenly across the wheel both laterally and vertical. if you just got a spoke wrench and went to town, there’s a good chance you turned your wheels into time bombs.
go to a bike shop. they will flip your bars, align them correctly, and torque those stem bolts to specwith a torque wrench. have them check everything else on the bike. **be honest** about anything you did.
and, as a pro-tip here, ask them to check stuff they wouldn’t normally check on their own bike builds, like if you have a threaded bottom bracket that it’s torqued to spec. there is approximately a zero percent chance you got the tools to do that, as they all take different adapters and a torque wrench that goes to 40+ Nm is over $100 by itself. i’m recommending that one out of personal experience with bikesdirect.
Ok 2 options.
1) muscle + air compressor the handlegrips off
2) remove stem bolts that attach the bars to the stem, flip the bars and reattach stem bolts
Is this a joke? If not, go to a bike shop. No way your build is safe to ride