Today I reminded myself that I can be a prize idiot sometimes. Had a big coming together with a tree about 30 miles into a London to Brighton off-road ride on Sunday. Shortly after the crash, when pulling up hard on the bars, I heard a bit of a "click / crack" kind of noise. One grip was torn where the bars obviously hit the tree so I peeled back the grip and checked for damage, all looked ok. Also checked the rest of the bar and there was no sign of damage that I could see. I then rode on the remaining 40+ miles to Brighton. All was fine so I thought no more of it.

Regular Tuesday night ride tonight. Right at the start of the ride, crossing the road this happened…

All I got was a sore leg. I've driven home this evening trying not to think about those 40 miles I rode with a cracked handlebar, including at least a couple of fast & loose descents. Definitely dodged one there, no thanks to my stupidity.

Scared me then I thought you had snapped your frame (I got one too) you were lucky I ride alu bars after a similar thing happened to me.

I'd be too depressed to take pictures if I cracked that frame! I've always been fearful of the potential for a broken handlebar to totally take you down. Counting my lucky stars frankly.

Ouch… I was thinking about getting some carbon bars… not anymore! Can't believe its snapped off completely.. eek

Easton guarantee their aluminium bars for 5 years.
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And their carbon ones for life.

Looks like a clean snap at the point the shifter was mounted. Too tight?

Shouldn't be, I use a torque wrench on anything carbon. Although, the Brake lever did rotate a bit during the crash, shifter didn't.

Easton guarantee their aluminium bars for 5 years.
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And their carbon ones for life.

They look like easton bars, think he'll get a warranty?

pedalhead – Member
Had a big coming together with a tree about 30 miles into a London to Brighton off-road ride on Sunday.

In what way do you think this qualifies for a warranty replacement?

Just because the warranty is longer doesn't mean the bars are stronger. They might be or it might be a cunning advertising ploy. They'd hardly warranty them for a shorter period of time and expect people to believe they're just as strong…

I think they have a limited 5 year warranty just like the Alu ones plus Warranty doesn't cover crash damage.

Also a 'lifetime' warranty only means the expected lifetime of the product, so if it's only expected to last 2 years well that the 'lifetime'

What's the point in a lifetime warranty on handlebars (carbon or alloy)?
Pointless marketing "oooh look at how confident we are in our £100 handlebars". Bars don't usually break unless whacked, so the warranty is worthless IMHO.

druidh – Member
Easton guarantee their aluminium bars for 5 years.
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And their carbon ones for life.

Note to user – life may be shorter than 5 years; particularly if your bars snap at an awkward moment.

What he said.

What I would say is though Easton bars have reinforced clamping zones, those shifters and brake lever look mighty inboard, close to the bend in fact. You must have some seriously long thumbs.

But don't they also say you shouldn't put anything on the bar 'curve' (ie between the stem and 'normal brake/shifter' position)?

tbh While I 'moved' to carbon bars earlier this year, I did go for Eastons DH version.

That picture made me feel a bit ill

That picture made me feel a bit ill

And me – those walls look like they need pointing, damp proofing and whitewashing.

😆 DeVs

Easton replaced a set of carbon bars that I'd had for 7 years no question. I took them into two wheels and he gave me a replacement set there and then. I too heard that ominous creaky cracking sound prior to them snapping.

I snapped a set of alu bars landing after a tiny wee hop off a tree root. Mangaed to stay on and escaped a fall. I don't think about it at all now – any bit could fail at any time – if you worry about it you'll never get back on your bike…

Just to be clear, I don't consider this a warranty issue :-). I'm frankly not overly surprised that the bars failed, it was a hard hit that obviously did the original damage. I've got another set of the same bars that I'll put straight on. I'll just remember to change them next time I have a big stack or hear that bloody noise again!

Shifters are inboard simply to allow the brake levers to be in the right place for 1 finger braking close to the bars.

Feel free to do some repointing for me. It's a 200 yr old barn and I really can't be arsed!

Oh and yes they are/were Easton CNT xc jobbies.

Blimey. 😯

Should you be getting the frame checked as well? If it was a stack big enough to do that I'd certainly consider checking an alu frame for cracks & stress damage.
Is checking a carbon frame a user level exercise?

On a side note, why don't you put the shifters the other side of the brake levers on the new bars ? Or is there an issue with doing this with the SRAM shifters ?

Cheers

Bazzer

You could easily fix that with a stick, whittled down to fit of course

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…….. goes off musing over what happens when/if carbon forks snap @ 40mph 😐

I bet they don't warranty them after crash damage – but they bloody should.
they are MOUNTAIN BIKE handlebars after all, so if they can't take a little crash now and again without risking the user's life, then they aren't fit for purpose. Surely?!

🙄 cue the usual misinformed carbon will make you DIE comments.

I've seen several alu bars break in similar fashion. Best you all stop using them too then…

Why carbon bars anyway?
Are they more absorbent of trail vibration ?
They cant be much lighter.

(Never ridden on them, always gone for alloy).

I snapped a BMX stem clean in two once, landing a jump.
Jagged stem remains hacked a nice hole in my chest. Luckily my face went down onto the tyre on the RH side, otherwise the side-pull MX brake gubbins would have probably blinded me.
(Was back in the early 80's).

I've seen several alu bars break in similar fashion.

Show me!

We ride, we crash, stuff breaks. Pleased you didn't hurt yourself.

Generally my experience of warrantees and crash replacement policies is that they're fair. Might be worth a go, prefixed with 'I have hit this off a big tree at speed and then ridden with it creaking. Imagine my surprise when…. '

Good luck and pleased you're OK.

…….. goes off musing over what happens when/if carbon forks snap @ 40mph

You'll probably fall off and hurt yourself, yet the world will contiue spinning. 😉

There are pictures of broken aluminium bars on an almost identical thread to this one from a few months ago.

I think you can see why this happened…

BARSNAP

The thing that worries me is that after the crash the bars showed no outward sign of damage that I could see. If I'd been using an ipod (as I often do during solo rides) I wouldn't have heard the creak. Basically that means we should be changing our carbon bars after every crash, which would get expensive quickly with my riding! This might apply to alu bars too, I'm certainly not a carbon hater, and in fact I'll be putting some carbon bars straight back onto this bike, but I wonder if it's more likely that alu bars would fail in a less catastrophic way..?

I think you can see why this happened.

Cos it was 1999?

Hi Mark, glad to hear you got away with it, though perhaps it was Dango's penknife 😉

As I said on Sunday, carbon doesn't particularly like impacts and can look fine even when the surface appears fine. Aluminium bars are just as likely to fail under say a heavy landing though. I wouldn't worry about putting carbons back on, just replace them if you they lose a fight with a tree!

I hope your arm is OK,

Philip

It would have been a bummer if it had broken a bit futher into the ride on Sunday, good to meet you fella 🙂

cut down the other side to match, then sell them to some London type for their fixie project.

cheers guys, really enjoyed the ride, even though my arm still hurts like hell!

Just because the warranty is longer doesn't mean the bars are stronger

Easton published the results of a stength test comparing their carbon bars to their aluminium ones.

Carbon bars were both stronger and outlived the aluminium ones in the fatigue test (which in itself was a big load, cycled thousands of times).

There was a guy a few years back who snapped his aluminium bars and sued (sucessfully?) ATB Sales (the then Marin distributor) IIRC despite them being something like 7 years old.

in the fatigue test

ie NOT impact. OP's bars failed hitting a tree, not through fatigue. Aluminium is well known for having a finite fatigue limit, which is why planes are de-commissioned after a certain amount of flying hours.

Skin heals better than both materials though!