Slipping peg clamps

[Corkster52]

I have been trying for a couple of days to get highway pegs installed on the crash bars of my old girl but I have tried everything I can think of to get the 12mm bolt as tight as possible but they still slip. Has anyone resolved a similar issue with their bike?

[823JIM]

Try a strip of inner tube rubber under the clamp as a shim. I have done this on clamps that have room for such a thing.

[Corkster52]

That's one of my problems. There is no room to put anything thick under the aluminum shims that make contact with the crash bar. One option that I have considered is to try and get pieces of doubled 600 grit sandpaper there, but some feedback I also read is that it will break down in the rain.

[tfdeputydawg]

Use strips of crocus cloth under the clamps

[Terry D]

The inner tube will work the bolts will squeeze the clamps into the rubber for a force fit. I have done this many times. Just for 5 bucks get a bicycle tube for a skinny tire and cut a 1" piece out of it for each clamp. Split then split the pieces and trim off so the rubber fit nicely over the bar without overlap. Better to be short than too long. Place it where you want the clamp and installed. Personally, I don't like highway bars on the crash bars. I've seen where a bike goes down even slightly and they pivot in such a way they can put a hole in the lower valve cover that covers the sparkplugs. It is mostly just a cosmetic problem. On the 1000s - 1200s it can cause an oil leak.

[Corkster52]

Thanks guys. I had a roll of 8 grit crocus cloth on hand, so I put contact cement on in and the outer shim of each clamp half. I also had to grind down the ends of each clamp (closer to the outer hole for the U-bolt) because the ends would touch before the clamp got tight. I wish they were the hinge type instead of the 3 piece type. Can't move them now by hand so I'll test them out when I ride.

Good to know that if damage is done to the valve cover it is only "cosmetic". I was going to start carrying JB Weld and Gorilla tape...just in case.

[CrystalPistol]

I have been trying for a couple of days to get highway pegs installed on the crash bars of my old girl but I have tried everything I can think of to get the 12mm bolt as tight as possible but they still slip. Has anyone resolved a similar issue with their bike?

Just one 12mm bolt each side? Are these the kind that have a bolt on only one side of a piece of aluminum clamp? Mine had those, but then one day one fell off …. at 60 mph … aluminum just cracked and broke. I found some new mounts that sandwich the steel tube between flat bars at top and bottom. Reused my boards on new brackets. The older ones also had a pointy set screw that was supposed to "dig in" to steel to stop slips.