Minoura Japan – Bike Cradle

Please be sure about the following points when using 40mm or 45mm stainless band clip comes with BikeTower5, BikePit, P-500 and P-600 stands.
Failure or ignoring these points should cause a band breakage problem.

Do not screw at wrong angle
It is crucial to place the bolt to the nut at correct angle to screw smoothly and perfectly. However, it can happen that the bolt is screwed into the nut a few rotation even if the bolt is set at certain slanted angle. This is an unavoidable phenomenon due to the physical mechanism of threading.

You screw the bolt 0.5 - 1 turn into the nut then it will be terminated. This is the typical case of wrong insertion angle problem. Do not think that it has caused by defect thread on either bolt or nut. It happens due to the wrong insertion angle.
And do not try to use a tool (hex wrench) after this termination to tighten more. You should not use tool from the beginning. Remember a bolt must be screwed by your finger and use the tool in the final stage only to tighten firmly.

The band clip may be deformed
The stainless band is already installed in the factory to the same diameter tube for individual inspection. The band shape should be corrected during this process, but it can happen that the band has been deformed during transportation due to some reasons.
To confirm if the band still keeps the correct shape, try to assemble temporally prior to the final assembling.

Once the band has been deformed, the band ends will not overlap properly and you will see some gap between the band ends when closing the band around the pillar. This is the sign for correction.
Remove the band and correct the shape by temporally winding around the pillar.

The band ends overlap perfectly
The correctly shaped band clip shows no gap between the band ends. This can be checked only after winding around the pillar. You are not allowed to check the band itself.
Confirm the bolt is heading to the pillar center and the angle to the nut is 90 degrees.

The band will be deformed if you push the bolt
When attaching the plastic bracket, try to align the band ends in the bracket by pushing toward the pillar.
Be sure do not push the bolt when screwing. The pushed bolt will compress the band, then the band end will be bent and you may not be able to screw the bolt correctly.
Remember you should not use any tool from the beginning.

The correct procedure should be;
1) Pinch the bolt by finger and screw in without pushing the bolt to catch the thread smoothly.
2) After confirming the bolt successfully catches the thread, continue screwing by finger 3 more revolutions.
3) If you don't have any problem on screwing, you can use the tool, but we strongly recommend you to continue using your finger until you cannot tighten more.
4) Use the tool for final tightening.