Hold tight to the bike!

I work as a bike mechanic in a bike shop and this past weekend a very interesting issue was brought to my attention that required some creative problem solving. The issue at hand was that the handlebars of someones bicycle (triathlon bike to be more specific) continued to slip no matter how tightly the fasteners were torqued. So I came up with an idea to use sandpaper to keep the different slippage points, six in total, in place. A creative part was to fold the sandpaper so that the abrasive side was in contact with all parts involved. The really creative part was how to get the sandpaper in the very odd and small positions while have the handlebars properly aligned. After struggling for 15  minutes I stepped back and really tried to think of how to use my tools in a creative way. I ended up using an Allen wrench as a sort of pry bar in between fasteners to allow enough space for the sandpaper to be slid in. The allen wrenches flat surfaces worked perfectly for this job that they were not designed to perform.

Derek Jacobs