Weight Weenies

I'm looking for wisdom on how to stop a RH ergo moving on the handlebar other than whacking the torque way up on the tightening bolt. Bar is 3T Ergonova carbon. Does carbon paste work in this context? I can't get the RH ergo to stay put and it's annoying.

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Carbon paste won’t hurt. It will simply serve the same purpose as the roughened up portion that is often on bars at the clamp area. A pic would be good, as some levers/bars just don’t play very well together, either from a fit or function standpoint. Aside from that, as long as the levers are in a safe clamping area, my only other suggestion is to raise the torque until it either holds, or...

Double sided sticky tape around the bar in the area you want to clamp the ergo?

Some sort of thin rubber between bar and clamp. Perhaps cut a sleeve in a shrink sleeve and place between.
(That is to say - no heating needed as you cut up the shrink sleeve)
I have used it on some saddle rails.

Or as Cal says, higher torque!

The bars are designed to take the torque so crank that bad boy down

By the way, you just mention the RH lever, so I assume the left hand lever is staying put. If thats the case, then there’s no reason the RH lever shouldn’t stay put as well. Same curve. Same lever.

True what you say, and thanks all for suggestions, but RH lever does see a bit more braking and shifting action. And I have a hunch. (joke!)

Campag lever is printed with 8nm torque.

It says 8nm? That’s a reduction then since I’ve only ever seen 10Nm in their tech manuals. Which is a whole lot and I would never go to 10. I did once on some string alloy bars just to see how tight it was and, for me, I felt it was way overkill. But they always caution to make sure the carbon bars can handle it as well. Basically no manufacturer of lightweight components wants to take the blame. The bars will be the weakest link for sure. Out of curiosity, where is the 8Nm printed on the lever? I’ve never seen that. And one final thing is that if the bar has been compromised (cracked but not visible) it could make it possible for the lever to move since the base it’s mounted to is no longer solid.

You're right, the Campag tech manual says 10nm. I picked up 8nm from somewhere though, perhaps a shop, or is it printed on the bars... can't check quickly as they're covered in tape.

If the bars say 8Nm, then I think you’re good to crank those levers down till they stop moving or bust.

Lever clamps can damage some bars. Don't exceed the max for bar or lever, whichever is less.

Consider cleaning both surfaces with a solvent, such as acetone or alcohol. Obviously, grease or oil in the interface will make it slipperier.

I have experienced the same problem with Ergolevers, but never SRAM or Shimano. Must be something about Campagnolo.

My fix has been to cut strips from a drinks can and use them as shims. More secure and less likely to compress than tape or rubber. Because they are stiff, you can slip them in behind the clamp which makes them easy to position. Because of the shape of the can to start with, they also conform to the curve of the bar well.

On a previous bike I was able to secure a slipping seatpost with a coke can shim so I am trying that approach, thanks Solarider. I found an empty drinks can for source material. I've cut a little piece of that, roughened it with sandpaper, and put it inside the ergo clamp. I haven't gone mad on torque, warning heeded.

Those Ergonova bars have quite a sharp curve at the top, I think the problem is that the front and back edges of the hoods aren’t bracing against the bar enough when the clamp it tightened. I don’t remember any slipping when I had those bars, maybe got lucky with my one being a few fractions of a mm thicker or something, but that sharp curve made for a really uncomfortable bump where the hoods met the bars. I had to pack out the gap under the bar tape to remedy it, but eventually I got rid of the bars.

@Zakalwe makes the same point I was implying when I said that some bars/levers just don't play well with each other. Clamping a Campy lever on a really tight radius can be one of those situations, although probably not quite as bad as trying to clamp in on a bend where the lever extremeites are jamming into the bar. The first situaiton leaves gaps that need to be filled, the second can put a lot of stress on the lever body versus the actual clamp where it should be.
Your pic above looks like it should be ok, so long as it stays tight enough, and since the left one seems to be, I'm going to assume the right one can get there too. I'd just make sure there aren't any real sharp edges from the "shim" cutting into the carbon that could become stress risers at any point but since it's soft thin aluminum I wouldn't think it to be an issue. Fingers crossed.

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