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I probably know the answer to this one but....
I picked up some Race Face carbon bars off that well known auction site. Only £35 brand new. Eyes wide open about authenticity and exactly where the Race Face decals were applied but given feedback on them I took a punt. Cracking bars to ride with but after swapping brakes and going matchmaker to bar clamp i slowly tightened the clamp and heard a faint cracking sound. Torque meter hadnt even moved and it was only a little more than finger tight. They'd have had more force from the ride battering the week before.
No visible signs of cracking anywhere. Not even lacquer flake or cracks. But carbon and cracking sounds IMHO are a death nell.
Other than X-Rays (waste of time and money for £35) or riding to see if I break them and then my face is there anything I can do to check integrity? Or time to cut my losses and move on?
no visible broken fibres or resin.... i wouldn't worry.
Every broken carbon handlebar I have seen in person has been a Raceface
If you ride flats they'll be fine, if you run clips then i'd swap the bars out.
Cracking bars to ride with
Interesting turn of phrase…
My carbon bars snapped after a similar experience, luckily I heard some additional crackling of carbon on the trail and stopped, only for the bars to come apart after a brief inspection.
Id replace them just to be safe.
Forget them. Carbon bar at budget alu price? You knew from the start anyway.
Up the budget to 50 or so and get nice alu bar.
TBH there's lots of things that can make a cracking noise, it could be as simple as a movement of the bolt (assuming it was a single crack not creaking or crrrraaaack...). If I threw away bits every time they made a noise I wouldn't have any bikes. But, it is not my face
Had a thread on the EMTB forum of some chap who snapped his alu bars, one side completely off, which is reckoned was due to overtightening and damage caused.
So it you see on your alu bars right at the edge of the clamp, cut in marks, then bin it and get another.
And a torque wrench too 😉
If there's no conclusive way I think it will be the bin. ANd i did use a torque wrench set to 2Nm! Therein's the dilemma.....cracking sound before the torque wrench even moved!
Doubts there now anyway. New set of Renthal bars just landed. Loads of others could have been purchased. But the Tart in me wanted the colour match! Only Renthal had that. Other brands are available. But not a good enough match!
They’d have had more force from the ride battering the week before.
carbon fible by its very nature is not a homogenous material. Force applied by you riding the bike of some sick drops to flat is not the same loading, or even at the same point along the bar as a ring clamping force.
I'd bin them. From a materials point of view I think bars are a silly place to try to save weight anyway.
For me it would be a matter of confidence. if you're going to worry about them snapping, and never trust them, i'd bin them.
for exactly that reason, i wouldn't buy knock-offs in the first place. they might well be just as strong, but it's the confidence thing.
Ditch them. Unless you are really ugly and have enough health insurance to get your face rebuilt into a pretty boy/girl (delete as appropriate).
Bars aren’t worth the risk
Do a returns.
And/Or (helping other people out)
Post a buyer's review: "I was tightening them up to 2nm with a torque wrench when I heard a nasty cracking sound. Not wanting to have the jagged, broken end of a handlebar inserted into my face on the trail, I decided to replace them before I'd even so much as ridden down my driveway. Maybe not all the stock is like this, but my gran says I have the face of an angel and I want to keep it like that."