new bars

 The bars on the Yellow Maserati, my titanium bike (which is neither yellow nor a Maserati; of COURSE there's a story in it) are slipping. It's not dangerous; what happens is that when I come down hard after a bump, the elevation angle of the bars changes by a degree or two, and after many bumps, it's settled a few degrees lower than I'd like. It's a matter of a 4mm Allen wrench and two bolts to set it right again, but it doesn't stay right for long.

Technical drivel follows: The bar is aluminum, and has a ridged section where it clamps into the stem. Velo Orange, which made the bar, no longer uses that design for the attachment of their drop bars. And the two standards for the stem-bar interface diameter are 25.4mm and 26mm*. I can't remember which applies on this system and can't find the original documents from when I built the bike more than a decade ago, and after all these years, disassembling-and-reassemblings, loosenings, tightenings, and whatnot, I have no confidence that I'll be able to accurately measure the diameter to a tolerance of about half-a-millimeter.

*There is also a standard at 31.8mm, but I'm sure that's not the one I used. My measurements are more accurate than that!! 

The ridging was probably supposed to cut into the stem a bit, and hold the bars in place, but it has not worked that way. And the ridges mean that preferable solution, carbon paste, won't work. A shim is also no longer working.

The slippage is annoying. I could live with it, but I had a dream last night about losing my handlebars, and I wonder if the Universe Is Trying To Tell Me Something.

I've worked on a couple of bikes with integrated carbon bar-and-stem assemblies:

Prices used to be stupid on these, but they are now affordable on Ebay, and even less expensive on Ali Express. And while they're designed for internal cable routing, there's no rule that says I HAVE to route the shift cables internally (I couldn't anyway; the shift cable direction on my preferred Gevenalle setup is all wrong).

But I've been slandering carbon fiber and repeating, "I don't ride no plastic bikes" for so long... When I made up the Maserati, I put on a steel fork, because at the time, carbon fiber had a terrible reputation for sudden and disastrous breakage. But carbon performance is a LOT better now. But I have such a reputation as a retrogrouch, and maybe I want to maintain that.

Further, at the New Brunswick Bike Exchange, there's an old Sakae aluminum bar that has a beautiful feel and shape. When I get in early, I often go and find it and hold it, just because it feels so good in my hands. It's got the slightest bend in one side, which means I wouldn't use it on a bike outside the used ones at the Exchange... but it's a lovely thing. So there's more to think about.

Now that I think of it, I'd also have to make sure that the stem rise on the bars would be similar to what I have now. The carbon bars are often flat, and my stem has a 6° rise. There's not enough height on the steerer to accommodate. So I might have to get a new fork.

Of course, if I got a new fork, I could get one with a disk-brake attachment, and try out those Juin-Tech hybrid brakes that have me smitten. But then I'd need a front wheel with a rotor attachment... which means a chance to build a new wheel...

I don't know.