How feasible would it be to cut the last two inches off my aerobars? They are vision TT bars and at the ends they bend upward a lot. I end up holding them at that bend most of the time anyway, so cutting off about two inches would create the perfect bars for me. Serious complications? Should I just get new bars?
There are some threads here that talk about cutting down the basebars that I’ve looked into, but I haven’t seen the aero bars ones. The thing I’d be wary of is making sure you don’t cut too close to the bend so that your shifter can still fit in straight tubing and that the cable routing isn’t screwed up by this. You should be able to pull it off though, barring that. Many aerobars are designed to be cut to size so the cutting shouldn’t bee too much of a challenge given you have tools…
Many aerobar ends are reamed internally so that bar end shifters can slide into place. I have cut down an older set of Visiontech integrated bars and then the shifters didnt fit. I then used a dremel and sandpaper to make the ends bigger so that the shifters slid into place.
If you do it, use either a pipe cutter or a hacksaw with some sort of guide (such as a threadless steerer tube cutter guide).
You may have to re-drill the aero cable routing, but that isnt a big deal.
J
“Many aerobar ends are reamed internally so that bar end shifters can slide into place. I have cut down an older set of Visiontech integrated bars and then the shifters didnt fit. I then used a dremel and sandpaper to make the ends bigger so that the shifters slid into place.”
Recently there was something in one of the last Triathlete magazines (and I remember seeing them on a thread here… Interbike?) about an external clamp for bar-end shifters. J-Tech? Don’t remember the name…
Jtek currently doesnt produce anything like that, but in talking with them they told me that they are coming out with some new products, perhaps thats one of them.
Jtek was just a guess. I remember they were gold-colored, and clamped around the outside of the aero-extensions.
I did exactly what you are contemplating a while ago with my HED aero bars. I have access to a machine shop so I used a lathe in the process. If you have a local machine shop, I’m sure they would do it for 20 bucks or so. Here is a link (CLICK)
to the original thread. And here is the pic of the completed front end
Jtek was just a guess. I remember they were gold-colored, and clamped around the outside of the aero-extensions.
Ahh you mean these.
Jagwire
Dingdingding! We have a winner! That’s what I was talking about. If I remember right, the write-ups were saying they’re lighter than the insert type as well.
No problem with the Vision Techs. I did exactly what you are talking about and the Dura-Ace shifters fit with no problem. I used a pipe cutter and finished with a round file to remove any burs.