Lifespan of a handlebar (for me)?

I appreciate this has far too many variables for any one answer, so maybe folks could comment for my scenario.

TL:DR – I am worried about the longevity of my bars, will replace anyway, but would like others opinions for future reference.

Ride a 60mm rise, 31.8mm clamp, 800 wide Spank Spoon. Been used for about 1000km on a Hello Dave hardtail, and about 5000km on my Giant Reign Ebike. Over 2+ ish years across both bikes.

Ride trails locally (Stirling and beyond), not averse to a small jump or 2,  recently enjoying the new trails at Tarland and GT, a few French alps and Swiss trips in summer and beyond too. Still quite a mincer but have my own personal riding god moments. Also numerous crashes in that period. Bars look a wee bit scuffed up, but not bent.

I am 120kgs fully kitted, and ebike is full fat 26kgs ish. I am also tall at 195cm, so at full chat manhandling the bike round tight berm or big compressions I must be putting a fair old load through them. Tight berms or landing ‘a wee bit nose heavy’ are really making me shit myself now.

How long would you expect a bar to last before even a modicum of caution would drive you to change?

Picture of bike for reference.

“Tight berms or landing ‘a wee bit nose heavy’ are really making me shit myself now.”

If you feel like that then I’d replace them!

If you can find wider DH rated bars then they’ll be stronger (when cut down to 800).

Crashes will stress the bars much more than anything you do riding the bike. I would base it on the severity of the crashes rather than mileage. But, if you’re worried about it, replacing them once a year will give you peace of mind.

Crashed, with a big guy on board, a couple of years old, myself I’d get them changed. Having bars fail can be painful. I’ve had it happen.
Left wrist broken in 4 places and the other over extended, causing lots of damage that took longer to heal than the fractures.

420g set of alloy bars? It wouldn’t even occur to me to worry.

What’s making you nervous about them?

in comparison, I’m 4 years in on a set of Renthal carbons on my big bike, which I picked up off pinkbike secondhand. (but unmarked).  They’re just over half the weight, have been jumped, dropped and generally thrashed, including a crash hard enough to break bones. They give me no concerns what so ever.
…but then I’m half your weight, too…

“They give me no concerns what so ever”

My bars gave me no concerns whatsoever as well. Until I hit a fast compression and they snapped.
I’d say visible damage and a few crashes is a good reason to replace.

What’s the worst that could happen…?

You’re asking what’s the price of peace of mind.

Go to Uncle Iain and treat yourself to a set of One Up bars – like what they put on the Deviates.

You’ll be fine.

(I see they also sell Race Face Atlas for 820mm width people).

It would be interesting to know the testing protocol for MTB handlebars – I presume it’s covered by EN14766.

If you never crashed then a DH rated carbon bar would mean you didn’t have to worry about fatigue. But an alloy bar is a safer bet if it’s it’s being crashed as damage will be more obvious – but alloy bars will eventually fail from fatigue and although that should be after a huge amount of use, weighing 120kg and riding fairly hard will shorten that lifespan.

Not something I’ve ever thought about, mine are 7 years old and have been through crashes, DH hammering, lack of regular cleaning, sweat and bashing off the garage walls regularly.

I presume it’s covered by EN14766.

That was superseded a few years back now but yes, EN ISO 4210 for MTB, EN ISO 17404 for E-MTB (though bars tests are the same between them). What might be good to look for is a mark for the use class, class 5 use describes DH and big jumps and I’d expect a bar rated to that to have been loaded beyond those tests.

Interesting responses, cheers folks – as you have suggested, will change anyway just for peace of mind. Cue sods law kicking in…

The takes of sudden snappage are horrendous, plan to avoid that 🙂

Good point about class 5 use, I don’t think I was ever going to use an obviously XC bar for my riding, but that give some something specific to look for.

Ta muchly!

With your record? Every six months 🙂

This place runs some enhanced fatigue protocols – I doubt you’ll get an answer but you could always try asking who makes the most durable handlebars:

https://www.efbe.de/index-de.html#zwei

p.s. should also get your special udh bolt done this week.

“ With your record? Every six months 🙂”

Are you the chap who kept snapping rear axles?!

Amongst other things, yes 🙈😆

It’s a bit like having insurance for the house, after paying off the mortgage (so no compulsory need from the bank) – it’s a balance of cost vs consequences if it is to fail / house is to burn down.

And similar to being a smoker who likes deep fat fried chips from a traditional chip pan… being heavier and crashing all increase the risk.

As Dirt Harry would say, “do you feel lucky?”. Well, do ya ?

I was all ready to say “ah, don’t worry about it mate”, but having read your post I’d probably be sourcing a new bar in the sales.