Replacing carbon bars after a crash?

My wife crashed pretty badly yesterday, knocked herself out & a precautionary trip to hospital. Luckily nothing broken or out of place.

Her bars took a pretty bad hit, twisted around and one of the levers was twisted right around

I’ve not had a proper look over it yet but Carbon worries me at the best of times, any sense in replacing the bars as a precaution or only worry if there’s any visible damage?

Better safe than sorry, I’d say.

Windsurf masts, mostly carbon, get whacked, crushed, bent in the shore break and mostly don’t break until they get a monster bash. But they’re designed for that, and have been for 30 years.
Does that translate to bars though?

Does that translate to bars though?

No idea. But it’s why my bars are all aluminium. (Which also breaks I know)

I suspect fine. Do you have photos of any visual damage?

Not yet, bike is still in the van, I’ll get it out tomorrow and give it a good look over.

Considering your wife’s crash and the possible damage to the carbon bars, it’s probably safest to replace them to avoid any potential risks.

My wife crashed pretty badly yesterday, knocked herself out & a precautionary trip to hospital.

I’d guess it was quite a high energy crash then.

Her bars took a pretty bad hit, twisted around and one of the levers was twisted right around.

That doesn’t sound *that* clever, using the bars as a lever to rotate the stem on the steerer, then spinning the brake lever round as well. (Probably caught the end of the lever, so a bit of a vigorous bending moment while it goes).

I’d replace them.

But it’s why my bars are all aluminium. (Which also breaks I know)

Trade off innit, aluminium is pretty obvious for breaks/damage in the event of a crash, but bloody awful in fatigue (almost perfect one moment, the next you’re eating the top of your stem).

Carbon really doesn’t have a fatigue limit, unless it’s incredibly fragile/light (or badly designed), and (IME) makes lots of noise when it does starts to go. But it’s possible to damage it really badly and have (almost) no visible tells…

If you are going to be worrying about it non-stop, change them. If it’s the stem twisting on the steerer, that’s what it should be doing in the event of a high impact – absorbs some of the energy. I’d be more inclined to change the bars if that hadn’t happened.

I’d take everything off and inspect the bar properly.

Unless it’s a skimpy XC bar, it should be one of the more robust components on the bike – and I’ve ridden carbon bars after several crashes.

Edit: It might be nice to put the bar on your bike and yours on hers though 😀

I would replace the bars. I have seen carbon bars that suddenly snapped after the bike had simply tipped over while walking the bike on a gravel road, and the bar end hit the road not too hard, had no outward signs of damage at all. Broke apart a little while later, while riding.

Then again, seen bars that had the whole lacquer layer peeling off, dents and scuffs and years and years of really hard riding and bikepacking and still did not break – though I told that customer to change them before they snap somewhere in Siberia and he did.

There’s no right answer, I’ve ridden carbon bars after crashes with no issues but no two crashes are alike. I’d take them off and inspect them, they might not have taken too much of an impact if they twisted out of the way on impact. If you’re worrying about it then it’s probably better to replace them anyway just for peace of mind.

Just taken them off, nothing obvious, just the surface marks from where the clamps have been.

Infact the whole bike seems OK, some fresh scratches on the fork lowers but that’s about all I’ve found.

I’d carry on using those myself.

I would carry on using them but that would be my decision

What does she want to do.

Fair point, she’s happy to use them.

I took them off the bike and she’s checked them over too, I’ll be putting them back on for her tomorrow ready for whenever she’s good to get back on the bike 🙂

Does anyone replace bars through age?

I replaced mine (aluminium) when they started making creaking noises, although I was never totally sure if it was the bars themselves or just dirt around the stem. But either way the noise was unnerving and it went away with the new bars!

I’d bin them but I’ve seen carbon bars fail spectacularly first hand on more than one occasion.

Most recently a mate had a serious OTB on a slightly lumpy bridleway when his carbon DH bar let go for no obvious reason. This was just after climbing over a gate, if it was 30 seconds later when we were up to speed it could have been life changing.

Another one was when we were riding steep, muddy, switchbacks and someone slithered to a stop and lay down against the hillside. Left hand side of the bar just snapped off from contact with the ground.

I know how strong carbon fibre is (or can be) but the scariest thing about it is the way it stores up damage while looking perfectly healthy and then lets go in a totally unpredictable fashion. I know alloy can fail but I’ve personally never snapped one or ever seen one fail in real life.

The only carbon on my bike is the headset spacers.