How not to change your handlebars.

[Globalti]

Make a cup of tea. Strip off bar tape, laboriously separating it where it's stuck to the gel pads. Remove gel pads. Remove all the tatty bits of tape. Loosen and wiggle off the brakes. Undo the stem cap and remove the bare bars. Offer up nice shiny new carbon flat top bars to discover.... they don't fit! The 31.8mm bars don't fit a supposedly 31.8 mm Specialized stem. The fit is not snug and the bars would be crushed by the top and bottom of the stem/cap. Make more tea then laboriously reassemble everything.

Why didn't I just remove the stem cap and offer up the new bars to check before stripping the old ones? Grrrrr! That's a whole evening wasted when I could have checked in ten minutes!

 

[Gary E]

Maybe we should start a new thread entitled "Things I'll know not to do next time"
I'd certainly make a few posts.

 

[fossyant]

Oh dear. So you need a new nice shiny carbon stem - silver lining and all.

At least it isn't the old type quills !

 

[Globalti]

Would be a good idea but there's a second problem; the carbon bars are much longer on the tops than my alloy Specialized bars meaning that the hoods would be 2-3" further away from me. I would have been prepared to try them though, if it hadn't been for the fit problem.

 

[Matthew_T]

Maybe we should start a new thread entitled "Things I'll know not to do next time"
I'd certainly make a few posts.

Hmmm good idea. I will start one now.