handlebar help

[Rick73]

so I bought sunlit D cruiser bars for a swhinn occ chopper bike and found out I need a shim to make them work. any clue on what size shim I need and where to purchase it? Any help would be helpfull. the gooseneck is 3" end to end and 1 1/2 .

 

[Frankenstein]

No couldn't tell you, could tell you how though.. measure the outer diameter of the bars to the side of the stem hold zone, the smooth part, probably 7/8in. Remove the bars from the stingray and measure the outer diameter of those where the clamp grips them. It's the bumpy/ridged section. You can see what's going on here by now but if not divide the difference between the diameters by 2. That's the thickness of the shim you need.

I'd measure different pieces of spare metal tube and once I had a good piece (it can be thicker than what you need but thinner is no good) I'd split it down the middle into 2 pieces and that's a shim.

If you don't have a caliper I'd steer away from using a ruler or something odd like that unless you hold it on a flat table and a sheet of paper and a square to accurately draw lines on paper where the tube actually rests above. But anyway you can wrap layers of tape around the bar until you have a cylinder that fits just right in the stem clamp. Cut it off the bars and find a piece of metal in the same thickness of the layered tape.

Ordering a shim off the Internet is just dumb... no offence intended, a shim would be faster and cheaper to make or find amongst scrap than it would be to order one, even then there's a chance you could get sent exactly the wrong size and then you'll be really annoyed. My handlebars were a little loose, I put some folded aluminum foil in there to make them nice and ridged, that was a very very tiny gap however.

 

[Spare_Parts]

Return them and get the 1" clamp bars. The ones you bought are for older bikes with a 7/8" clamp. I just checked at the site from your screen shot and they have them.

You would need a piece of 1" tube with a 1/16" wall thickness and a slit length wise but most likely the bars will slip. Tried it a bunch of times in the 80's.

 

[gary55]

so I bought sunlit D cruiser bars for a swhinn occ chopper bike and found out I need a shim to make them work. any clue on what size shim I need and where to purchase it? Any help would be helpfull. the gooseneck is 3" end to end and 1 1/2 .

If you buy the shims they will look something like this. You could probably make your own by cutting a split in the end of your old bars then cutting them off to the desired length.https://www.ebay.com/itm/Bicycle-Ha...Alloy-22-2mm-to-25-4mm-7-8-to-1-/262031371290

 

[Rick73]

If you buy the shims they will look something like this. You could probably make your own by cutting a split in the end of your old bars then cutting them off to the desired length.https://www.ebay.com/itm/Bicycle-Ha...Alloy-22-2mm-to-25-4mm-7-8-to-1-/262031371290

I was thinking of making my own. I'll wait and see the handlebars when they arrive

 

[Frankenstein]

Return them and get the 1" clamp bars. The ones you bought are for older bikes with a 7/8" clamp. I just checked at the site from your screen shot and they have them.

You would need a piece of 1" tube with a 1/16" wall thickness and a slit length wise but most likely the bars will slip. Tried it a bunch of times in the 80's.

When they slip put a sheet of gripy back sandpaper between the parts, once clamped down that stuff just doesn't want to slip, medium grain works well.