*pic for traction*
I’ve been practicing my j/bunny hops, fakies, and manuals for about a month now. Seems like every time I finish riding, my handlebars get pulled back towards me.
I accidentally stripped the allen screw for my seat post but was able to use a similar length, same sized screw from another bike. I want to avoid stripping my 4 stem screws every time I adjust my handlebars, any suggestions or suggestions?
*edit* Should have mentioned the bike is only a month old and was ordered through DansComp so everything was 90% assembled before I got it. I have tightened the stem screws in a cross/X pattern but they are still loose.
by CrashBandit06
13 Comments
If they aren’t staying tight you can try using lock tight.
Make sure your using the correct size bit, are you tightening them fully or just touch tight? They need to be fully tightened
Just gotta crank em down.
Make sure you’re not using cheap & nasty Allen keys. Try taking the stem apart and cleaning out any grit, paint or metal shavings etc from inside the clamp and from the bars. Also make sure you’re tightening the bolts on your stem in a cross cross pattern, so it tightens evenly.
Hopefully the knurling isn’t gone on your bars.
tighten your stem bolts in an x pattern.
put lock tight tighten in x cross pattern hope this helps mine used to do this!!
I’ve always had to tighten the shit out of mine to keep the bars from moving in hard landings and crashes. So tight that they make a pinging sound 2-3 times when I have to loosen them.
I would take them off wipe them off and tighten again in an x pattern, making sure that the gap on the top and bottom are equal.
Sometimes fresh bars, when they slip, will rub off some paint and then the little bits of paint doesn’t let the stem have a good contact patch with the bars.
Edit: it’s a top load stem so I should say make sure the front and back have the same gap as you tighten
Grease them and torque them to 15#/’. Make sure you don’t get grease inside the stem or on the knurling of your bars. If you’ve overtightened them in the past, that could’ve deformed the bars. Continual slipping can also carve away the mating surface inside the stem. So, if they keep slipping after you torque them to 15#, open up the stem and inspect. You can kind of refresh the mating surface with some medium grit sandpaper, and that may help it grab onto the bars better. If the bars have been crushed, it’s time to shop for new bars.
Those t925 are budget bars that kink uses only for completes. I believe the markings on them that say they’re cromo, but I don’t think they’re straight gauge. I’ve read stories of them bending more easily than what you’d expect from chromoly. The knurling on them, also, is not the best. I swapped mine for a Helm set because I wanted 10.5 and the knurling on that set is **WAY** beefier.
what everyone else said.
and
since its happened a few times now. pop the cap of the stem off.. clean the contact surfaces on the stem and the bars thoroughly. use a stiff metal brush. it slips and the bars grind a bit of the stem off and that aluminum dust just makes it slip easier in the future.
I had this issue about 10-15 years ago with my dans comp complete.
Take the bars off, rough up the paint on the cross hatch section of the bars, clean it off, reinstall with blue loctite or other thread locker, torque bolts to spec. My bars didn’t move after that. I haven’t ridden in 8-10 years so they’re still in the same position😂
Rough up the part of the bars that attach to the stem with sand paper. Just enough to make the paint a little rough so it grips to the stem better