In article <[email hidden]>, trent gregory hill
Quoted message said:Folks,
I'm writing to consult the collective wisdom of the NG regarding a piece of advice that was given
me in all seriousness this afternoon by one of the parts guys at the largest LBS around here
(Seattle). I stopped by to pick up a set of shims to adapt a 25.4 handlebar to a 26.0 clamp. When
I asked the parts guy if they had any, he told me that they didn't carry them because they were
"dangerous," and if I really wanted to shim my bars (which I shouldn't, under any circumstances),
I should just cut up a pop can.
Sorry, I know this doesn't answer your question, but your post caused the following flashback:
...
His handlebars had started slipping. Not badly, he said, just a little when you shoved hard on them.
I warned him not to use an adjustable on the tightening nuts. It was likely to damage the chrome and
start small rust spots. He agreed to use my metric sockets and box-ends.
When he brought his motorcycle over I got my wrenches out but then noticed that no amount of
tightening would stop the slippage, because the ends of the collars were pinched shut.
"You're going to have to shim those out," I said.
"What's shim?"
"It's a thin, flat strip of metal. You just slip it around the handebar under the collar there and
it will open up the collar to where you can tighten it again. You use shim like that to make
adjustments in all kinds of machines."
"Oh," he said. He was gettiing interested. "Good. Where do you buy them?"
"I've got some right here," I said gleefully, holding up the can of beer in my hand.
He didn't understand for a moment. Then he said, "*What*, the *can*?"
"Sure," I said. "Best shim stock in the world."
I thought this was pretty clever myself. Save him a trip God knows where to get shim stock. Save him
time. Save him money.
But to my surprise he didn't see the cleverness of this at all. In fact he got noticably haughty
about the whole thing. Pretty soon he was dodging and filling with all kinds of excuses and, before
I had realized what his real attitude was, we had decided not to fix the handlebars at all.
As far as I know those handlebars are still loose. And I believe now that he was actually offended
at the time. I had the *nerve* to propose repair of his new eighteen-hundred dollar BMW, the pride
of a half-century of German mechanical finesse, with a piece of old *beer* can!
...
For a while, I thought what I *should* have done was sneak over to the workbench, cut a shim from
the beer can, remove the printing, then come back and tell him we were in luck, it was the last
one I had, specially imported from Germany. That would have done it. A special shim from the
private stock of Baron Alfred Krupp, who had to sell it at a great sacrifice. Then he would have
gone gaga over it.
- Robert M Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
For what it is worth, I don't see how shim could be dangerous, even the beer can kind, if you're
careful about how you apply it.
