Hello, I’m having trouble with a clip on aero bar setup that keeps slipping. I’m clamping it to a carbon bar (Deda Superzero RS) so I don’t want to over torque it. I’ve tried Finish Line carbon paste which helped a bit but it still slips.
Has anyone got any recommendations for more ‘grippy’ carbon assembly paste?
Haven’t used many different products, but the Shimano worked for me
I don’t think that bar is compatible with clip on Aero bars. Most carbon bars aren’t, and I would only attach them on bars that specifically say they’re compatible, which these don’t. Not worth the risk in my opinion, I’d switch to an alloy bar.
Have a look at the Silca paste. Josh, the CEO, has a spiel on his site about how it’s better than most. There’s usually something in what he says: I think they don’t release stuff unless it’s a bit plausible there’s an improvement over most of what the others are offering (even if the price point is not always worth it)
Thanks for checking and the concern, but this bar explicitly states it is compatible with extensions. It seems to be one of the only carbon handlebars on the market that does! You may be looking at the Superzero model, which isn’t compatible.
What clip on bar are you using? Another Deda product?
Yes the clamps are Deda
I can see how this would be frustrating. Have you tried contacting the manufacturer? Something is clearly not correct. If you’ve used the correct torque with fibre grip and are still having slipping problems one or both of the items is out of spec. From a safety perspective different grip paste or shims/tape don’t seem like a great idea.
Sadly when I’ve encountered issues like this in the past I’ve ended up resorting to using items from a different manufacturer.
Agree. Different paste isn’t the fix here. If Finish Line isn’t working then others are unlikely to work either. The paste is not the problem.
When you say you don’t want to over torque the clamping bolts. Are you torquing the bolts to the specified value, with a torque wrench? If not using a decent torque wrench or hitting the values stated, I suggest you start there. Oh, and when I say specified values, check the bar specifications, as well as those for the extensions, and double check you are mounting to the right location on the bar too.
I’ve had issues with the Finish Line grip paste being inadequate when others do the job. I suspect it’s due to the relatively thick grease medium, but that’s just speculation.
I’ve had excellent results with the Dynamic Assembly Paste, which used to be labeled as a Tacx product. As far as I can tell, it’s the same as what is supplied with FSA and Zipp products and many other brands. The grease carrier is very thin, almost watery, the grit is plentiful, and it doesn’t scratch carbon finishes as badly as others.
Second choice is the Motorex. Unlike pretty much any other grip paste product, it has no grit in it. I prefer to use it on parts that would benefit from that feature, such as seatposts.
I would stay away from the Park grip paste. Their grit medium is extremely sharp, coarse, and abrasive. They’re using silica, which I think is a terrible choice. Most others like the Dynamic use “polymer spheres” aka tiny plastic balls. While the balls can abrade a bit due to their size, their surface isn’t jagged. They’ll sink into the material a bit, but also they squish and rebound.
I’ve just used some of Silca’s carbon paste and can report that it works well, so much better than Finish Line grip paste that I’ve had for a while that it’s like night and day.
My use case has been to quiet creaking of the headtube collar on an original Wahoo Kickr Bike, caused by terrible tolerances that have forced many owners to repeatedly replace snapped bolts and even Wahoo to supply a non-QR lever option. But even with copious Finish Line, the non-QR bolt still creaked and caused me concern that the bolt would snap any day, given how much I needed to tighten it to keep the steerer from slipping.
I wiped off the old Finish Line from the collar and put on a good amount of Silca paste on the tube and steerer… then I couldn’t even push the steerer (that easily slid all the way through the tube pre-application) into the tube more than a cm! It took some effort to even pull out the steerer. I wiped most of the Silca paste off, and then I still had to push down forcefully and rock the bar side-to-side to move the steerer down past the minimum insertion line. I tightened the collar bolt a reasonable amount, meaning far looser than when I had to crank it worryingly tight w/ Finish Line. Dead silence when I applied weight to the bars.