Alu - vs - Carbon

omri

Hi,

Just wanted to ask what attitude should I have towards this: "should I get alu stem + bars - or carbon".

Alu+: price, stiffnes, durability
Alu-: weight

Carbon+: weight, stiffnes?, durability?
Carbon-: obviously price

Now, do I really need it ? Will it improve anything in my ride ? It might get quite expensive hobby once crash occurs.

Appreciate any thoughts of yours.

Cheers.

DirkVoodoo

Honestly, if you stuck a blindfold on me and said "cycle these two bikes, one has aluminium bars/stem,the other carbon" I wouldn't be able to tell the difference. And I would probably hit a lamp post.

Carbon kit will save a bit of weight (not all the time), but for me the cost doesn't justify it. I bought a nice set of FSA bars here second hand, they look great, but that's about it.

There is also the constant fear of something snapping because you decided not to check that last bolt with a torque wrench before saturday's spin.

If I was buying stuff again, I would buy an aluminium stem and bars, definitely.

Lumen

There is no advantage to a carbon stem, wrapped or proper.

Carbon bars are supposed to offer improved vibration damping. I picked up my Zipp SL bars at a heavy discount ("only" £145). I like them, but can't say I've noticed a massive difference compared to the alloy bars on my other bikes.

I've read that the pros avoid carbon bars because there's more chance of them snapping in a crash, which means they need to wait around for a spare bike rather than picking it up and getting back on.

FWIW, I use my Zipp bars on my commuter bike, mostly for the sake of irony.

niceonetom

I know many of us are unwilling to admit this to ourselves, but carbon is not the best material for absolutely everything. Alu bars and this ftw:

lukester

Tackleberry

Lumen

lukester wrote: »

Tackleberry

niceonetom
witty username
Deisetrek

lukester

Lumen wrote: »

niceonetom
witty username
Deisetrek

True enough. I remember having this conversation with you last year, sans hyperlink.

I said it then, and I feel the same way now- I'd still probably favour alu for stems/bars/seat-posts, superior anecdotal evidence to the contrary notwithstanding.

CheGuedara

My 2c -

• Alu stem - anecdotally supposed to be stiffer, plus the cost of carbon stems if redonkulous for the small weight savings. TBH I think I have mental issues re. carbon stems (despite being very comfortable with the rest of the bike & its components being more or less made from c/f, weird.)
• Carbon bars - in my experience they do take some of the buzz out of the road (currently using FSA k-wing and don't even need to wrap them beyond the ramps). Like Lumen said though, the flip side is all you need is one bad fall and you'll either break them or have questions over their integrity and end up replacing them.

IMHO, if the cost of potential crash replacements is is a major concern then go alu, at the end of the day finding the bar with the correct shape (traditional, anatomic/ergo, compact) for you is more important than the material it's made from. Personally I'm loving the 3T Ergosum bars on my other bike right now and would happily change the carbon kwings (anatomic bend) for alu 3T bars because of the shape (I'm sure there's a Euro rule infraction for such heresy).

• Seat posts - whatever your wallet and preference likes the look of. IMHO it's an aesthetic choice with no difference in performance/comfort. Just by a torque wrench if you go carbon.

Quigs Snr

A good Alu bar like the Deda Newton or similar and a good cheap stem like the aluminium Pro PLT for example is cheap and almost as light as the very lightest carbon costing 10 times more. Plus as I have mentioned here before I have seen a carbon bar failure in a race. It wasn't pretty. I switched from Easton EC90 Carbon bars and stems to the aluminium pieces I mentioned above and I really cannot tell the difference in feel. Carbon bars and stem for a show bike, definitely. For a bike that's being raced ? I don't see the point, if for no other reason that the cost of replacement when you inevitably plant it into the tarmac.

CheGuedara

Off topic here but just looking to see if anyone has some better google-fu than me at the moment.

I'm actually going to follow through on my comment about changing the carbon kwings to alloy ergosums and am goin to change the stem to a slightly shorter one (those looking for a dealio will see the k-wings and the os115 stem its been used with in my clearout thread once they're changed).

Best price I've found so far for a 3T ergosum pro and ARX pro stem is €96.50 from roseversand.com/rosebikes.co.uk ex. shipping (another €6) - anyone able to better that?

Lemag

Having quickly used Froogle UK it threw up this and this for the bars.

CheGuedara

Lemag wrote: »

Having quickly used Froogle UK it threw up this and this for the bars.

Cheers lad! the tweeks cycles crowd is actually pretty good, excluding shipping the bars and stem actually did come in cheaper by a quid! Just got tripped up on the postage but they're getting bookmarked for sure

Lemag

No worries. I didn't check the shipping cost but was hinting more so at the use of 'Froogle' (google 'froogle uk') when shopping around. It doesn't pick up everything and there are other limitations to it but I've found it to be very handy in the past.

CheGuedara

Lemag wrote: »

No worries. I didn't check the shipping cost but was hinting more so at the use of 'Froogle' (google 'froogle uk') when shopping around. It doesn't pick up everything and there are other limitations to it but I've found it to be very handy in the past.

Yeah I've used it before - can be very good on some things but seems to have limited scope for others. Still though that another shop I now know of that'd be only too happy to take my money some time!

Paul Kiernan

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

There is also the constant fear of something snapping because you decided not to check that last bolt with a torque wrench before saturday's spin.

I heard a slight cracking sound when I was tightening my compressor bung into my carbon steerer:(. Makes me very nervous when I'm descending, esp. when I'm pushing down hard on the bars in a tight left hand bend with an MPV coming the other way:eek:.