I remember back in the day hearing that you should change your alloy ‘bars every year. Well, my bars are five years old – is it true you should change them (or just an old cyclist’s tale). They are X Lite Expert.

OMFG! You are just dicing with death!

Like I said in another thread, change them when your face hits the stem.

Easton warranty their alloy bars for 5 years…

and their carbon ones for life.

You should change bars every 3 years as a rule.
Or if they show signs of damage. e.g. after a crash.

You don’t have to ride a bike at all. There’s no component police ensuring you replace your handlebars.

Whether it’s sensible to is another question altogether!

+1 for 3 years. Perhaps not on a road bike, but just think of all that lovely high frequency vibration tapping away at the clamped end and your body weight levering at it. Had an alloy bar fail on me once, luckily on a flat road at low speed. Half a minute later would have been clocking 30ish down hill. Small beer really when you think of all the other money you spend on bike stuff, (big assumption!).

when i only rode dh, i’d change my bar at least ever 2 years. maybe sooner depending on how hard i crashed.
now i bimble round the forest i don’t evan think about it, maybe change when i get a new bike. which isn’t very often

Superb! A cast iron excuse to buy something… soooooo, I’m going shopping 🙂

Yup,me to.
These 12 year old Ti bars were rubbish anyway.
I am off to buy some 900mm tree wackers.

Who sells X Lite stuff nowadays? Ah, I see, Hotlines are distributing.

I’d have said, meh strong modern alloys… but watching my brothers handlebars snap off (by the stem) on the way to the pub kinda changed my mind

My 24sevens were still going strong when replaced, only changed as I wanted something wider. They were at least 5-6 years old.

Hmm I rode some 10 yo Syncros bars on my commuter until march this year. Never snapped on me.
If you compare stuff like Hyperlites to todays riser bars, they are SO thin in comparison.
I suspect they are massively over-engineered after some of the ’90s lightweight horror stories!
Oh and im nearly 17st.

I think only you will know yourself if your bars need replacing or not… If you do lots of big drops, you are particularly heavy, or are particularly clumsy then you’re likely to need to replace your bars often.

If you’re light, don’t ride big drops, aren’t clumsy, then your bars will probably last years and years…

Of course quality of the bars will make a difference in the first place too, as would running superlight XC bars on a DH bike etc…

Tough one isn’t it? The time you know for sure is when they have failed, and then it’s too late. I’ll probably change them because there are marks on them where I have put brake and gear levers on and off and because now I’ve thought of it I will worry about it every time I ride…

The work-hardening cycle and stress raisers from clamping forces and damage have far more impact on life expectancy than riding style.
Aggressive riders take risks with their equipment, but they are calculated risks that may result in damaged components.
If you’re trying to get away with using components beyond their safe work life, you’re basically gambling that they won’t fail and cause a crash.
A far more risky strategy IMHO.

I always think that my bars look wonky or bent and am constantly checking to see if they’re on the piss
this cumulative paranoia means that I end up changing my bars every couple of years 🙂
normally spend £30-50 so not too costly

“You should change bars every 3 years as a rule”
even if they’re warrantied for 5 years? (ie easton, bontrager .. )

Making sure your stem/brake levers/shifters/grips aren’t overtightened ought to decrease the stresses on them i should imagine too

so if you should replace you ralloy handelbars after 3 years how about your alloy frame? or your alloy seatpost? or your alloy wheelrims? or your alloy forks?

[/quote]TandemJeremy – Member

so if you should replace you ralloy handelbars after 3 years how about your alloy frame? or your alloy seatpost? or your alloy wheelrims? or your alloy forks?

Exactamundo. It’s marketing BS to get you to buy more stuff. Happy days for the OP it seems..

It’s impossible to place a life in years on component without knowing what they are going through.

How hard and how many hours are they ridden during those 3 years? Riding style, rider weight, frequency, severity…

If it were 3 years bang on, no argument, then they’d come with a system to record the date of fitting to avoid injury and claims.

Check for damage, stress marks (especially near the clamp) and deformation. If you fancy some new ones, go for it!

The have sentimental value plus I really like them, I would keep them on the bike but there are clamp marks on them and they are five years old, so will get new ones. Where to get X-Lite from tho? Looked on Hotlines’ website, no mention. Will do some research today. I see there are lots of carbon bars out there. Carbon? For bars? Really? Any experiences? Does anyone still do ti bars?

You can still get Ti bars, from Seven Cycles for example. I’ve got some hideous old x-lite bars from the late 90’s…the ones with the brace across the top. No idea what I was thinking. Carbon bars are ace, just make sure to change them if you have a big stack.