Joe Gross

As I’ve said before, I like my Profile Airstrike aerobars but they have a nasty problem where they rattle incessantly while riding to where it’s barely tolerable. It’s really unconscionable that Profile designed these bars without some way of dampening the flip-down arms. The problem is that when the arms are flipped up you end up with a metal on metal rattling every time you hit a little bump in the road.

I finally got fed up with it and found a way to fix the bars so they don’t rattle any more.

Here’s the supply list: Screwdriver, superglue, alcohol, scissors, thick rubber shim from a clip-on headlight kit, and something to hold down the pads (I use velcro).
FYI: The binder clip is a cue-sheet holder held on with puffy sticky tape and a zip tie.

First strap down the pads.

Clean the metal on the clamp with alcohol, using screwdriver to scrape pad. Allow to dry for 15 minutes or so.

Cut some small strips from the shim. Make sure they’ll fit in the slots under the joint of the pads. Clean these with alcohol, too.

Make sure the rubber shims are within reach.
Remove strap, hold down pad.
Apply super grlue to the slots, try to keep the glue off the top of the slot.

Insert front shim.
Adjust location of shim to allow the pads to flip up to where you want them. The pads won’t flip up as far as they used to, but they should be pretty close. This make take a few moments, but be fast as the glue dries really quickly.

Insert the rear shim to match the front. They may not both stick out the same amount.

Strap pad back down. Allow to dry for a few hours.

Carefully cut off the excess shim.

Now you’ll be riding in blissful silence while giviing up a little range of retraction. Even with the pads down a little bit I haven’t noticed them get in my way even on the tops of the bars.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 5th, 2006 at 12:10 am and is filed under Cycling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.