Straight MTB type bars or drops?

The hand squeezed “nut-cracker” type three wheel knurling tools will work by being rotated around a stationary workpiece.

Eventually!

Out of curiosity I tried mine running round and round on a piece of aluminium. Got there in the end but took a while. I suspect for stainless steel you’d need very sharp knurls and some sort of screw clamping system to get enough pressure. However its highly likely that the stainless will work harden on you mid job, not good.

My nut-cracker tool, this crew is a depth control not a forcer :-

Instructions for making a replica were published in Model Engineer issue dated 29 January 1999.

A bigger, stronger version was published in Popular Mechanics May 1965 issue. That one has a force screw.

This link to the article still works :-

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=buQDAAAAMBAJ&q=knurl#v=onepage&q=knurl&f=true

If you do decide to make such a tool and discover its not man enough for the job, probably 50/50 chance, a nut-cracker knurled is still very handy for casual jobs as it needs no setting up. I reckon my knurling jobs split about half and half between the nut-cracker and the (superb) Marlco device.

Not quite a putting on tool but when your light press fit comes out as stiff sliding fit ……..

Clive

Sacrilege! But I fully understand. My Laverda’s 5-piece adjustable bars started out fully dropped in my youth, then gradually crept upwards over the years, ending up fully raised. And I have a pair of BMW R90S bars with a a 2″ rise ready to replace the flats on my Norton Atlas. A nice compromise.

The high and wide Commando bars weren’t known for moving on the Commando, and it’s clamps were basic. Might be all right on the Vinnie as is? Unless you are attempting land speed records of course.

Never heard of any snapping, and we treated them pretty roughly back in the day. I know Harley used stainless handlebars in the 1970s and they seemed to stand up to the vibration of those things ok. The right grade of stainless is unlikely to snap. EG stainless spokes are widely used.

Fairly simple as you have a standard lathe knurling tool, which is a clamp type but might not open far enough. First get a tube to go over the mounting bar (the bit that normally goes in the toolpost) to give you leverage.
Next open to suitable width and move it onto the workpiece. Put a rope loop over the mounting bar and round the work, back to the bar(side) with a loop.
Put a piece of broom handle through the loop and over the work. This will be a lever that both pulls the knurl onto the work and pulls it round.

Pirsig suggests cutting a thin shim from an aluminium beer can and interposing it twixt bar and clamp.

Hi   back in the late 1950s  the handlebars on my comp Greeves bike would  move in the clamps when hammering over the rough I was told by a  top southern motor cycle scrambler who rode a 500 AJS that the trick was to smear very coarse grade emery grinding paste around the bars and inside the clamps and tighten the clamps up tight,another trick was stopping rubber handle bar grips from rotating or sliding off  the handlebar was to wind some old type insulating tape around the bars ,tip some neat petrol (not Twostroke) into the grip and quickly slide the grip over the tape ,and  wait a while for the petrol to evaporate .the tape used to come in rolls but in those days the material was a rubberised cloth tape.

Same with Golf bashers.