[Closed] Carbon bars for the road bike

thanks to everyone who has given their input to this thread

something I am concerned about (as a professional bike mechanic working in a store dealing almost exclusively with high end road bikes)

is that carbon fibre finishing kit (bars, stems, seatposts, saddles) requires careful fitting (inspection of other finishing kit i.e. sharp edges), fibre grip compound where appropriate, use of torque wrenches)

I have lost count of the number of instances where a rider has bought a component on-line, fitted it themselves using allen key multi tool, and then brought it into the store with damage issues normally relating to poor fitment

a big problem with carbon fibre is the lack of elasticity when fitting, unlike aluminium alloy which gives 'feedback' when increasing bolt torque; carbon does not give this feedback, it will suddenly "pop" when over tightened with wallet-emptying results 🙁

can think of a specific example where a customer bought a £100 CF seatpost, swore blind he had used a torque wrench, then admitted he had used a multi-tool, broke the seatpost and we did him a deal under "goodwill" on the 2nd seatpost and also sold him a torque wrench at a reduced price

the same is true of crashes, you are not sure what damage you have actually done to a carbon fibre component?

I have first hand seen riders have a 'bar digging' crash both on MTB and Road bikes, and then weeks later suffer when the handlebar has failed without notice.

in comparison riders with scratched and even dented aluminium alloy bars riding for some years with few issues (although personally I would recommend changing even an uncrashed aluminium alloy bar every 18-24 months for safety reasons i.e. fatigue)

have also dealt with a number of riders with expensive CF cranks that have suddenly failed, sometimes causing lacerating injuries or crashes (standing up powering, then crank shears), rarely seen aluminium alloy crank arm "fail" usually thread issues with pedal bosses or loose axle / bb fitment

in the off-season we can actually send a frame to McClaren and pay to use their NDT facilities to examine a CF frame for crash damage. hard to do when they are on-season building cars and don't have time for push bikes!