Drilling and tapping will be fine, no need for helicoil here. It might
be worth a trip by a local bike shop to see if they have anything that
will fit, but I know the problem... a 14-year old boy probably has a
Huffy or similar, and no bike shop will have parts for it.

Jim

On 10/8/07, Edward Duntz <eduntz@hotmail.com> wrote:
> I try not to post things that are not relevent to this forum but if anyone would like to respond to me directly instead of clogging up the list further I'd appreciate some adivice on repairing stripped threads- whether to use a tap and a larger bolt or a Helicoil or similar device. I don't really have experience repairing stripped threads and I want to do this job right so the 14-year old boy whose bike I'm trying to fix doesn't wind up in a ditch because his handlebars came off.
>
> I'm trying to fix four stripped bolts that hold the handlebars on. I haven't looked closely yet to see if  it's the bolts themselves or the threads they go into or both. I'm wondering if I can just buy slightly thicker bolts and then re-thread the threads they go into (I have a tap and die set that I haven't used yet) or if I need to use something like a helicoil.
>
> Any advice is appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
> Ed in CT
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