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I have a set of Easton Monkeylite CNT SL bars and was hoping to put some Tioga stubby bar ends on them. Apart from getting booed by the fashion police is this ok to do, can these bars take bar ends ok?
I would normally just have put them on but read somewhere that some carbon bars cant take bar ends without falling apart.
Have a look inside them, if you can see ally reinforcing rings inside the bar end, you're OK, otherwise you'll have to get some internal reinforming plugs, ergon, speccy and a few others make them. I'm pretty sure bar end capability or otherwise would be mentioned on the easton website, probably buried in the tech specs if you don't have the box/instructions to hand.
You'll munch those bars quicker than you can say 'faceplant' if you fit barends! You'll need some reinforcing plugs, and even then you're sufficiently thin that I wouldn't trust them.
Other bars are compatible, Ritchey WCS, EC70 (allegedly, they rarely respond well in real life!), Race Face etc.
Easton are the only company (as far as I'm aware) that allow bar end use on their carbon bars without voiding the warranty. The only thing is, you need to use bar ends with a particular clamping style -
I had some carbon bar ends on my old Monkeylites without any problem at all.
Not entirely true adh - my flat easton bars (EC70) have no metal support inside but are ok for bar ends. Easton give clear direction on which bar ends are ok:
[url] http://www.eastonbike.com/downloadable_files_unprotected/other_pdf/barends.pdf [/url]
I stand corrected 🙂
They dont have any reinforcement inside, thanks for all the advice.
Got ec70's and bar ends, are just fine.
As you said Monkeylite SLs though they're EC90s, which are not bar end compatible, and actually even EC70s often crack with 'approved' clamps. The old pre-CNT ones were far more reliable!
Also fbk Bontrager, Ritchey, New Ultimate, Schmolke, Race Face and Syntace all allow bar end use without voiding warranty, that's off the top of my head, I'm sure there are others!
I've got Bonty Carbon bar ends on my Bonty flat Carbon bars, not had any probs with them, nice shape too.
As Carbon MTB, got the Bontrager Race X Lite ones, which the site clearly says are bar end compatible. Weight of these bars is the same as Alloy bars though, so not much point other than the aesthetics 🙂