Agree moshimonster not about saving weight though I used to go for light ish components nowadays reliability & strength are important factors in my riding not bling, the failure of the bars was 3cm away from the brake clamp.

yorky – well you know how unpredictable carbon can be. Only needs a bad layup or even a small chip/defect in the wrong place. Don’t think I would ever risk running a carbon bar on my own bike, although I have just bought a carbon framed bike!

well you know how unpredictable carbon can be. Only needs a bad layup or even a small chip/defect in the wrong place

I’m amazed that people are still ignorant enough to think that aluminium is somehow different…

This created a couple of skid marks!!

Is that not their old bar that got recalled for, well, for doing that?

I’m amazed that people are still ignorant enough to think that aluminium is somehow different…

+1, scratched carbon is unlikley to fail, a scratch on aluminium on the other hand is more likley to become a crack. I’m far happier drilling big holes in the composite parts of my boat than I am drilling even small holes in the aluminium bits.

My other hobbies sailing, failry regulalry the boats capsize in relatively shallow water, often in waves, and the carbon masts get bounced up and down on the seabed and come up scuffed and scratched to buggery. Then go on to lead perfectly normal lives.

It’s actualy recomended to sand down the outer layer of coating down to the fibres then re-coat it every few years (because they spend a lot more time in the sun than a bike, even if they’re stored in their covers)!

Northwind- think those Sunlines did get recalled, we had a mate snap one in the Alps and found that they’d been recalled about a month and a half before he bought it.

It’s actualy recomended to sand down the outer layer of coating down to the fibres then re-coat it every few years

Didnt know this, decent thread for learning bits and pieces….carry on.

Jeez Cardo that’s scary I can imagine the skid marks !! new shorts please.. the heavens went similarly but luckily was just bouncing around in the garden post clean,
moshimonster I too ride carbon frames bikes, my lad & I have Bronson’s after too many cracked Laiperre’s which I loved the way they rode but too many cracks, going slightly of topic of bars I know but no one problem with the Bronson’s after hammering them.

I’m amazed that people are still ignorant enough to think that aluminium is somehow different…

Maybe I am just ignorant as you say, but in the 20 odd years I’ve been a chartered mech eng and worked extensively with both materials, I’ve seen a lot more broken carbon bits than alloy. Also chatting with my LBS, so have they! The thing is that alloy bars are a lot easier to produce reliably and consistently than carbon ones. Carbon manufacture is more labour intensive and prone to error. Your choice at the end of the day, hope you don’t have a failure.

yorky – I think the difference with carbon frames is that they have a decent amount of section which favours carbon design. I’m much less convinced about small diameter carbon tubes subjected to bending loads i.e. handlebars.