[Closed] Broke my bars

You crashed your bike, broke your bars and it's the manufacturers fault?

slow speed tumble

He's only asking..

Handlebar clearly not fit for porpoise

I was under the impression it was a common problem with carbon bars.

Is this the first time they've ever been crashed or banged?

It's certainly not a common problem with carbon bars but it could be an issue with a too-weak or faulty component, regardless of material. Or it could just be that stuff breaks when you crash it.

what were the torques like on the brakes, could they have been overtightened ?

Someone I know had a bad crash from his road bike carbon forks breaking under him.

It is a well known fact that carbon is substantially weakened by the proximity of nettles.Its like superman and kryptonite.I think you can apply a dock leaf based resin to repair them.

I had this once on some Easton carbon bars. Slow speed tumble as you put it.
I had recently moved a brake lever and the bar had snapped where the brake used to be. I assumed I'd over tightened it, but wasn't 100%.
Anyway, I mentioned it to my lbs who got me a new set from Easton for free. I say free, I had a sore wrist and a hole in my glove.

IMO it's worth asking.

Do you own a torque wrench and/or TorqueKey - if not lets assume you overtightened them.

If you do, talk to wherever you bought them.

Maybe replace with stronger ones? Ran Easton DH carbon's for 5 years and only replaced as I was bought wider Renthal carbon's.

If it broke between the lockon and the brake, it's probably less likely to be caused by overtightening- unless it's had the controls moved or something. Sure overtightening could weaken that area but you'd normally expect it to weaken the clamped areas more.

Handlebars can take a lot of force even in fairly small impacts, I bent my Protaper DHs like a paperclip in a slow crash just because they got to be the lever that everything else pushed on.

Unless you overtighten your controls - I would NOT expect carbon bars to snap like that.

Buy Easton.

Thanks all for the replies, I particularly liked Rorschach's intel on nettles, thanks bud I'll bear that in mind. @scotroutes I think bearnecessities answered you better than I could have.

Regarding over tightening, no I don't own a torque wrench but I didn't fit the brakes either, that was a bike shop in Nottingham I think. The bike is 2yo, I've had it 18 months having bought it through ebay.

Here are some pics...
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Lets review the facts here:

The other day I had a slow speed tumble

The bike is 2yo, I've had it 18 months having bought it through ebay

So, you have crashed your bike, and broken your bars, which you bought 2nd hand.

Should I complain to the manufacturer?

Err... Probably not.

Not sure that being second hand has any bearing on whether I complain, though perhaps "complain" is the wrong word. I'm not looking to blame anyone nor am I worried about the cost, I just want to establish whether carbon bars generally or Syncros carbon bars specifically tend to snap in this way from a relatively light impact when only 2 years old. Hence I asked the question to the experienced hive mind that is the STW community to see if anyone has had a similar experience.

Syncros may not be interested but I think I'll just email them the photos to give them the chance to comment.

bruceonabike - Member

Not sure that being second hand has any bearing on whether I complain

It's because you have no idea about its history- the bike could have been crashed dozens of times, the controls might have been overtightened, etc. If you could say "This bar has never been mistreated" then you've got a much better case but you can't.

But even if you could, stuff breaks in crashes. I can't tell from the pic which Synchros bar it is, they do some pretty weightweenie kit and some dh bars and everything inbetween. I'm assuming given the bike it's a lighter weight one?

I understand your point NW but the bike wasn't mistreated before I owned it and not crashed, believe me it was "as new" though of course I can't prove that and hence am not seeking to blame.

stuff breaks in crashes

bruceonabike - Member

if you are saying light weight means won't last then that's fine

No, not "lightweight won't last" but "lightweight won't stand up to hard use or mishandling like heavyweight will"

One of my sets of monkeylite carbons has survived dozens (hundreds?) of crashes, and also the bike falling off the gondola at fort william. Carbon can be incredibly strong.

Carbon can be incredibly strong.

They trist it in formula one cars going at thousanfsd of mile an hour. So it muct me good.

Bruce, this is the gamble when buying second hand composite, something could have happened at any time to the bars on the bike, or when fitting controls, maybe with the wrong torque settings.

I still haven't bought a set of carbon bars myself but no reason not to.

They trist it in formula one cars going at thousanfsd of mile an hour. So it muct me good.

Not sure what that means but have you ever seen a crashed F1 car?

Thanks all,some good comments here. Looks like I just got unlucky, either in the actual impact or the pre-ownership. If I do buy carbon again I will avoid used but more likely I will seek a decent alloy bar like Thomson or Easton. Off to post in Wanted again.

[i]Off to post in Wanted again. [/i]

buy new.

you got away with it this time and if you can afford even second hand Thomson bars you can buy new anyone elses 🙂

Not sure what that means but have you ever seen a crashed F1 car?

Plenty. And in almost all cases, the drivers have gout out and walked away. The carbon fibre 'safety cells' do their job. So it's 'trusted'. I don't beleive the above bars simply broke as a result of such apparently little impact. Unless it's a rogue pair. The Op should send them back to the manufacturers to examine them.

bruceonabike - Member

If I do buy carbon again I will avoid used but more likely I will seek a decent alloy bar like Thomson or Easton

FWIW Easton's alu bars are very ordinary, at the cheap end they're downright pisstakey- just trading on the carbon reputation (I like Easton, I've had a bunch of their carbon bars and been very happy, but they do sell some kit that's basically Halfords OEM spec.

^Thier EA30 bars are £30, yet heavier than a set of £12.99 Decathlon bars I bought. Their carbon bars, however, are great.

Sunline V1 alloy bars are really nice and go for reasonable money secondhand now that all the cool kids want Renthals.

🙂

Looks like a compressive failure from the splaying but hard to say without looking at them in person.

I suspect the clamp has played a role in weakening the area and take a look at the ends of the bars for signs of damage from the bike being dropped on the ends of the bars either during your crash or previously.

Looks like a really weird place to snap like that even if the controls had been 'over tightened'.
Could understand a break at the stem.

One of my sets of monkeylite carbons has survived dozens (hundreds?) of crashes, and also the bike falling off the gondola at fort william. Carbon can be incredibly strong.

My Easton Monkeylite bars cracked when the bike fell over whilst leant against a gate.

I still buy carbon, but it can break.

Just notched CRC have carbon Havens at 40% off. Anyone got a voucher?