Cutting handlebars

[Lazybird]

I want to shorten some straight bars. Assuming I can use a standard hacksaw? Any tips on how to cut them cleanly and at 90 degrees? Best done with bars on the bike or off? Thanks.

[Carlton green]

I’ve not cut handlebars yet but have cut similar bar / rod / tube with success.

Get hold of some wide masking tape and wrap it around where your cut will be.
Measure from some convenient datum point, I suggest the old end, and mark the tape with a pencil.
Take a moderate sized piece of paper or card and fold it it give a straight edge, then wrap it around the bar in a tube with the straight edge right next to your pencil mark.
Pencil mark around the tubes.
Using a junior hacksaw gently cut around the handlebar following the pencil marked guide.

I’d do this with the bars off and likely supported by a vice.

Good luck.

[Mike Sales]

A plumber's pipe cutter does a neat job. A file is needed to clean up after a hacksaw.

This one, from Tool Station, has a device for cleaning up the internal burr. It is the triangular projection.

[Biospace]

Make sure the blade is in good condition and at the correct tension, starting a cut can often be the most awkward part, pulling the blade backwards can start it in a more easily controlled way. Have a suitable metal file to hand to remove the inevitable sharp ends and make (re)fitting of grips (if so) easier.

I've done this with bars both on and off, make sure they're strongly located whichever way.

[Nearholmer]

I’ve done it both ways, but the pipe cutter is streets-ahead the better tool for the job. Mine must be 50 years old now, but you can buy one pretty cheaply, and if you go at the job nice and gently it doesn’t need to be a super-quality industrial one.

[Biospace]

I suggest a file is used whether saw blade or pipe cutter is used, pipe cutters leave a sharp edge on the internal circumference.

[freiston]

Last time I did it, it was aluminium Velo Orange Crazy bars. The tube wall was very thick - 3mm!. I'm useless at cutting or drilling anything straight so I used a plumber's pipe cutter - the sort with a thumbscrew adjuster for the depth of the cutting blade. I kept turning the cutter around the tube, screwing in the blade a touch when the turning got easier, until the end of the bar dropped off. After a little file and de-burr, the finish was good.

[pwa]

It can be done with the bars still on the bike. Obviously stripped of grips and bar ends. And the cut does not have to be perfect. I have done it with a hacksaw, using a wrap of insulation tape as a guide, but if you can find a jubilee clip it would give you a firm edge to keep you on track. Tidy up with a file.

[tim-b]

I want to shorten some straight bars. Assuming I can use a standard hacksaw? Any tips on how to cut them cleanly and at 90 degrees? Best done with bars on the bike or off? Thanks.

Don't use a plumber's pipe cutter with carbon fibre bars

I prefer to be able to rotate the bars and cut all round rather than one cut through

Jubilee clip is a good suggestion for a guide

[PH]

I've used a cheap pipe cutter for several aluminium bars and a couple of steel steerer tubes, plus some other no cycling pipes. It's a neat finish and easy to use as long as you don't rush it.

[Victor]

A pipe cutter applies a large force and is liable to crack even aluminium bars. Copper pipe is far more ductile than the aluminium alloys that bars are made of (at least before it gets work hardened).

[gbnz]

Jubilee clip is a good suggestion for a guide

Thanks to both above, I've never even thought of using a Jubilee Clip, can see it'd be of considerable benefit. Though an approach with a file to tidy up the only bicycle related pipe work I've ever cut, has worked (Nb. By chance, removed the fork cut 8yr's back, last week - merely due to mudguard clearances)

[cycle tramp]

I've shortened a number of handlebars with a hacksaw, and without a guide, the end cut has never been 90 straight, but always at some sort of oblique angle.

[richardfm]

I've shortened a number of handlebars with a hacksaw, and without a guide, the end cut has never been 90 straight, but always at some sort of oblique angle.

And when you fit the grips no one can tell

[Lazybird]

Thanks for all this. I hadn’t considered pipecutters and I already have some.