Handlebars - Carbon or Aluminium?

Spins

The most recent thread I can find on this is 6 year old and I'm wondering has peoples opinion changed since then.

How many out there ride carbon handlebars?
and
If cost was not a factor, would you ride carbon or aluminium handlebars?

Thanks.

Tenzor07

Have carbon bars for the MTB's, not a bother, works well..

fondriest

I'm a fan of all things carbon, but use alloy bars . I have seen 2 accidents caused by carbon bars breaking and that was enough for me.

onthefringe

if you have a tumble of any sort with carbon bars breaking them is on the cards...
even if they dont break...its possible theyll be damaged.
alu is not much heavier ( if any).
i had carbons and went back to alu...seen no difference in buzz

Brian?

I've carbon bars on both road bikes, mainly for the shape. If you're going with the standard shape I would t bother with carbon.

If you want something like this, they're worth it.

http://www.fullspeedahead.com/products/handlebars-road/k-wing-compact-handlebar/

Johnny Jukebox

Check out my thread on my alu handlebars...

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=90255841

mossym

4 stitches just taken out of my arm. doc not sure if it was the road or the bars, but he doubts the road given the depth of the cut.


carbon base bar ended up like that. alu aerobars aren't even scratched.

Spins

Bit off topic but those pictures got me thinking.
Is there anywhere in Ireland where you can get a carbon fibre frame scanned for defects and anybody know for how much?

devonp

Spins wrote: »

Bit off topic but those pictures got me thinking.
Is there anywhere in Ireland where you can get a carbon fibre frame scanned for defects and anybody know for how much?

+1

J Madone

mossym wrote: »

4 stitches just taken out of my arm. doc not sure if it was the road or the bars, but he doubts the road given the depth of the cut.


carbon base bar ended up like that. alu aerobars aren't even scratched.

Do you know the brand of bar in question? Any accidents previously with that bike?.
Hope your arm heals well

mossym

J Madone wrote: »

Do you know the brand of bar in question? Any accidents previously with that bike?.
Hope your arm heals well

it's a 3T bar. no accidents with the bike. i'm not blaming the bars at all. going from 45km/hr to zero is a lot of force. i wouldn't have expected any carbon bars to hold up, and i'm putting the exact same bars on again ( well not the exact ones obviously).

rather than start worrying about one brand of carbon versus another, the main consideration that in a hard crash and carbon bar is much more likely to shear than an alu version.as this is my tri bike i'm putting a carbon basebar back on with no fear. the aero bars are alu

ROK ON

I have had an aluminium stem fail on me. Luckily this happened as I took a bike apart for a full clean and service.
it was a relatively new PRO PLT stem.

No experience of carbon bars or stems for that matter. All materials fail. I have had an aluminium and a titanium frame fail on me. I have been putting in excess of 90kg on a carbon seat post for years and it's still going strong.

Periodic checks of componentry go a long way in terms of ease of mind.

Lumen

I'm sure I've crashed my superlight Zipp carbon bars a few times and they haven't fallen apart yet.

Unlike the frame they were attached to.

onthefringe

Lumen wrote: »

I'm sure I've crashed my superlight Zipp carbon bars a few times and they haven't fallen apart yet.

Unlike the frame they were attached to.

thankfully for a friend of mine his frame didnt smash ( a venge) but his carbon zipp bars did! low speed spill to!
depends on the fall i suppose

Lumen

onthefringe wrote: »

thankfully for a friend of mine his frame didnt smash ( a venge) but his carbon zipp bars did! low speed spill to!
depends on the fall i suppose

I've read that pros avoid carbon bars for this reason - reduces the chance of a bike change needed in a race.

I don't mind bars getting destroyed in a crash. Usually the biggest expense of a crash is ruined clothing, and I wouldn't use that as a reason to wear cheap clothes.

I just feel that carbon bars are less likely to gradually fail like alloy ones are. I have alloy bars too, though, but if I had unlimited cash I'd probably have carbon bars on all of my bikes.

The biggest issue is not being sure of the shape before buying. It's handy to find a mfr that has both cheap alloy and expensive carbon bars in the same geometry.

AstraMonti

Anyone remembers niceonetoms thread with his alloy bar breaking in two? Didn't find it with a quick search.

Lumen

AstraMonti wrote: »

Anyone remembers niceonetoms thread with his alloy bar breaking in two? Didn't find it with a quick search.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=58984436

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=niceonetom+alloy+fatigue&l=1

AstraMonti

Yeah like I could remember the alloy fatigue keywords :P

check_six

I worked with a fellow years ago who had a set of handlebars fail on him. What made his incident noteworthy was that immediately after the handlebar snapped he lurched forward and jammed the broken bar into his spokes thus catapulting himself down the road. Not the most graceful dismount, I'd guess.

Didn't sound like much fun at all to be honest!

Spins

but nobody knows if it's possible to get a carbon frame scanned for weaknesses after a crash?

A dog with a bone.....