Handlebar Slippage

[tab123]

Yesterday riding my gravel bike, I hit a doozy of a hole right after avoiding another hole. My handlebar slipped down a few inches. One top screw on the face plate may have been loose. The bottom screws were tight. Any suggestions for avoiding this in the future (other than making sure the screws are tight)?

The bar is an Easton EC90, and the stem is an Easton EC90 SL.

Thanks.

[ColonelJLloyd]

Any suggestions for avoiding this in the future (other than making sure the screws are tight)?

No. Making sure the bolts are properly tightened is the procedure. I'm guessing you didn't use a torque wrench. I suppose you could add carbon paste, but you shouldn't need to.

[AngryScientist]

depending on how much you weigh and how much of your weight is forward on the bars, especially cantilevered out on the hoods, when you hot a large pothole, i feel like handlebar slippage might be inevitable. given a certain amount of force applied, let's face it - it's better a few mm of slipping than breaking anything.

as above, all you can do is select a good designed 4 bolt stem and make sure the bolts are torqued to spec.

[tab123]

Thank you both. I will get out the torque wrench today. And try to avoid the holes!

[MagicHour]

If it's a current Easton stem, it likely has "top-lock" faceplate design.
Tighten the top 2 bolts fully to torque spec first, followed by bottom 2.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEBxa_1dOJI
https://www.eastoncycling.com/media/Install%20stems-v16.pdf

[Dude]

Carbon paste! And proper torque. No amount of slippage should be expected or tolerated. That's your facehead, you don't want to risk that.




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[Clean39T]

You could also spray it with plasti-dip - that rubber stuff the kids use on the murdered-out wheels. It's grippy, comes right off if you want it to, and it couldn't be easier to tape of a section of your bars where the clamp goes and give it a quick spray. My Ritchey wet-black bars have a textured surface at the clamp that does the same thing. The FSA bars I had that were gloss white didn't and I almost face planted the same the way you did (was a Thomson X2, but still - slippery bar is slippery bar).

[pdmtong]

Carbon paste! And proper torque. No amount of slippage should be expected or tolerated. That's your facehead, you don't want to risk that. Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk


^ this
Paste and torque whether carbon or metal