My bars will not tighten up enough to keep them tight. I had a flat this year and had bike flat bed to dealer while in VT. Bars got pulled down by straps. I torqued them 16-18# like dealer said. He said might need new bars as the knurling might be bad. Any one with same experience?

 

Sorry but, that about covers strapping a bike down by the handlebars.
You will need to replace the bars, as the dealer said, the knurling has been stripped. The bars will never be secure again.
But look at the bright side, maybe some apes? ;-0

 

Right, you don`t strap them down with handlebars! I always used triple tree. Situation just happened that way and now I pay the price. Have Heritage bars already which are alot higher than stock RK bars. Dealer said cheaper to swap out. Now carry my own straps!

 

The knurling may still be OK, I would pull the top clamp and see for yourself, use a wire brush to clean the hard steel bar knurling because it is likely loaded with the soft aluminum from the clamp. Reassemble and use the torque wrench, the clamp bolts are paired on each side like a cable clamp, so if 1 bolt on one side is loose, that whole side is loose; if any 1 of the 4 bolts is loose, you only have half the clamping power remaining. You can also put some red high strength threadlocker between the bar and clamp (after you commit to a bar position). Merry Christmas

 

Will try that before I take in spring for service. Thanks fabrik8r!

 

make sure you tighten the bolts even..and look for a small gap.
one side bottems out you're stessing the clamp.

some aluminum wool or some kind kind of "filler" will help but may not be permanant.
Or clean out the knurling like other said and "rough them up"

I use to hit my bicycle handlebars once or twice with a soft face hammer.and it worked great

 

On my stepson's springer softtail his apes were loose. We bought a 3/4 inch copper pipe sweat coupling, cut it in half lengthways and put one piece in each clamp and tightened to spec plus 3 lbs or so. The copper being softer spread to the diameter of the bars and dug right into the knurling. No more movement.

 

When I put Heritage Bars on my RK I wasn't sure they were going to tighten up and have the same problem your describing but they seem to be ok....I may have to take further steps should that change.

 

You can use a center punch & put multiple dimples in the handlebar knurled area to tighten up the bars. It will work for awhile.

 

Get a 1pc top clamp.