[dr13zehn]

When I checked my Ritchey carbon bar today, after removing the Gripshifts, I noticed that the clamps really seem to dig into the clearcoat. One side even had a small amount of it chipped off.
I took the bar to my LBS and they said that it should be fine as it looks like only the clearcoat.

Has anyone else had this problem?
I tightened the clamps to 5nm. Should I use less? Is it advised to use only alloy bars with gripshifters?

 

[gumbymark]

If it is only the clear coat you will be fine.

Unless there is a big difference between the "attack" and standard grip shifts I think your bars will be alright. The vast majority of grip shifts out there are on XC bikes and almost everyone I know who uses them also has carbon bars (myself included). I personally can't say I've seen a bar break at the shifter, they all seem to go at the stem clamp.



FWIW I've also seen imprints on carbon bars from shifter and brake clamps.

 

[dr13zehn]

Thanks for the reply.
I think I may have overtightened the shifters.
I always go up to 5nm with everything on the bar, but I noticed that the shifters will be tight enough at about 3nm already.
It seems as though there is not that much pressure from the screw needed to make that clamp tighten down very hard.

 

[f3rg]

I had my Sram 9.0SL gripshifters dig into two Easton carbon bars way back, so I ended up swapping to a Ti bar just because of that. The Ti holds up much better (~7yrs so far), and absorbs shock better than the carbon, in my opinion.

 

[mtnbiker72]

I ran SRAM 9.0 shifters for many years on carbon bars and never had a problem. Its not unusual for clear coat to have some marks from clamping, but it has zero structural effect on the bars.