Hey All,

I have a flat bar which I was going to apply bar tape to and wanted to use a set of crosstop levers as the primaries. The Tektro levers I bought come at their smallest for 24mm bars, my bar is oversize 31.8mm tapering from the center down to 22mm. Because I don't want to mount them very close to the middle of the bar the 2mm discrepancy is causing a bit of a headache.

Would I be committing some heinous act if I were to mount them over the top of the bar tape in order to get them snug?

Cheers,
Tom

Well, I don't know about heinous, but they may slip over time.

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Bar tape would make a pretty poor shim. I have installed levers with 24 mm clamps on 22 mm bars before by taking a seatpost shim of approximately the right thickness, and chopping it down to be the width of the clamp. So far the lever hasn't moved at all, and you can barely see the shim under the clamp.

Wrap of old inner tube underneath will do it. Its grippy and less likely to slip than bar tape

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Cervelo S3 2011. Blinged 6.718 Kg

The rubber spacers that come with lights and computer mounts would work. They come in different thicknesses and can be easily cut to size.
Your LBS has probably got a few in the spares box.

I always keep the spares. They can be extremely useful.

Thanks for the pointers guys! I thought as much, it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world but has potential to slip. I have an inner tube which I regretfully made a mess of recently so it sounds like that will be the perfect application.

I would NOT use rubber to shim the levers. I would use plastic in a pinch, but aluminum would work so much better. Rubber has too much give, something with as much leverage as levers (that sounds weird) will surely be able to slip no matter what.
There must be something at the local hardware store that incorporates aluminum strips 0.8-1.0mm thick.

Trust me, a single layer of inner tube wont slip. Its pretty solid and doesnt squidge that much. It wont damage bars and costs nothing and can be cut to exact size easily. Its an old MTB trick to put it under levers etc to stop them moving

Those pads you get under lights and other clamps are either plastic or rubber, no different from inner tube other than the can be specific shapes

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Cervelo S3 2011. Blinged 6.718 Kg