Not all carbon is created equal (AliExpress handlebar content)

The “2 things I never risk my life on” are:-

– Bars

– Stem

– Wheels

– Brakes

– Forks

Oh.. that’s 5 things.

Yeah seeing internal damage on carbon is essentially a tricky endeavour.

Internal damage/small cracks on alu is similarly tricky to find within the bounds of the equipment most of us have available anyway.

I’ll have to use the “floor mangling” test in future.

Not a good vid.  19 minutes of prejudice and no scientific analysis.

I think you might be the exception to the rule. The Chinese are typically better than the west at carbon fibre manufacture and are very experienced.  There’s obviously a line to be drawn somewhere about cost / quality and I think you’ve probably found it in those bars.

Look at the price range for carbon stuff in the UK. Seatposts*, for example, range from ~£30 to upwards of £300 with no obvious difference in quality and potentially made in the same factory.  I’d be fairly relaxed about riding on cheap-but-not-dirt-cheap Chinese carbon (in fact, I do, on my Ribble…), especially having seen a couple of web-tours around the factories.

* Admittedly, that £30 seatpost broke last week and I’ve just replaced it with one costing £100.  I don’t know if the low price is related to the failure or not, but my replacement decision was based on the fact that I needed a replacement same day, hence paying through the nose at my LBS.