So I'm riding down I-10 yesterday about 70-75 mph, just cruising along happy as a clam when all of a sudden my handlebars came loose and dropped (I have 12-inch mini-apes).

They didn't drop too far, just a few inches, but it spooked the holy hell out of me at that speed. I pulled off first exit and tightened them.

Anybody ever have this happen to them? I don't really want to loctite the clamp bolts because I like to move the bars around every now and then, get a different look and a different feel.

 

Are the bars and clamps knurled?

 

Good save. I wonder how many riders haven't been as lucky as you were. If I had apes I would install a set screw like some others here have done. With my cruiser bars I just re torque the clamps to specs plus 2-3 every so often.

 

it happened to me once but at about 35 - 40 mph. that was scary enough. I now loctite the bolts. get them where they are comfortable and leave them there.

 

I guess I need to take them off and check.

 

If they're not knurled (usually the bars), use a set screw as described. If they are, just use some blue loctite. It's easy enough to get back apart if you decide to change position. Sounds to me the bars didn't get tightend down good enough.

 

If those bolts are tightened down and torqued properly (proper sequence and number of steps as well as proper torque), they should not need loctite to keep them from coming loose. My guess is that they were tightened unevenly.

 

Thats nothing. Back in the day i took a gal for a ride on my Triumph and as soon as we got to my house she got off and i went to get off and my risers snapped. I guess there was a crack in them but the chrome covered it up. Thank god it didnt snap going down the road. No helmet law back then.

 

I've had the same thing happen to me too, except it happened when I was taking off from a light. My bars are smooth and so are the inside of my risers. I thought about putting a piece of sand cloth around the bars and then tightening the risers back down on them to give them grip... Does this make sense? I feel my bars might be slicker than most because they are gloss black PC and the risers are the stock chrome ones.

 

I like the set screw idea. I just found some at Bolt Depot.