Are Carbon bars ok?

[crazyt]

I heard that carbon bars might not be that safe but Im not sure. Asking for a friend.

Edited September 2, 2018 by crazyt

[MrTheCatLady]

There's a little video right here - skip to the 5 min mark for the good stuff.  I don't think I'll ever buy carbon bars, cranks, stem, or seatpost for a mountain bike.  I'm just too danger-prone.

-cls

[Chief]

I have carbon bars on both my bikes. No issues.

[throet]

4 hours ago, Chief said:

I have carbon bars on both my bikes. No issues.

Me too. Less vibration than alloy. 

[Seths Pool]

Oh yeah, carbon bars are a greeat idea. Since we all need to shave those precious grams for your weekend warrior 12 mile trail rides! Right?

 

or you could just buy aluminum, save yourself some money, and prevent what happened to ME on Saturday- 

 

 

 

[TheX]

The only thing that bothers me about carbon is buying used from an unknown source.

[Seths Pool]

3 minutes ago, TheX said:

The only thing that bothers me about carbon is buying used from an unknown source.

Well if you watch my video, those were name brand chromag bars bought brand new 

[throet]

14 minutes ago, Seths Pool said:

Oh yeah, carbon bars are a greeat idea. Since we all need to shave those precious grams for your weekend warrior 12 mile trail rides! Right?

More about the feel than the weight for me, and I ride 5 times per week, weekends included (18 miles of Brushy goodness this morning). Sounds like what you're saying is that nobody under any circumstance should ever ride carbon bars, but doesn't it really come down to riding style and other factors, such as bar width? Remember what you taught me when I was just getting into the sport - light hands, heavy feet?     

[ATXZJ]

Agree about the weekend warrior comment but not for same reason. WW are probably best suited IMHO for carbon as they are not hucking to flat and really pushing the bars beyond their limits. Certainly not around here. I know i can also land stupid heavy at times and would not want to do any DH or aggressive enduro trails with anything but AL.

Like everything else carbon, the insta-fail aspect is what always worries me.

 

 

Edited September 3, 2018 by ATXZJ

[Tree Magnet]

Oh yeah, carbon bars are a greeat idea. Since we all need to shave those precious grams for your weekend warrior 12 mile trail rides! Right?

Seth - this has a bit of a dickish tone to it but I’m going to assume you didn’t mean it that way. If we all stopped riding parts based on their ability to survive you, Jenson might go out of business.



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[TheX]

18 minutes ago, Tree Magnet said:

Seth - this has a bit of a dickish tone to it 

 

A bit?

[Seths Pool]

1 hour ago, throet said:

More about the feel than the weight for me, and I ride 5 times per week, weekends included (18 miles of Brushy goodness this morning). Sounds like what you're saying is that nobody under any circumstance should ever ride carbon bars, but doesn't it really come down to riding style and other factors, such as bar width? Remember what you taught me when I was just getting into the sport - light hands, heavy feet?     

 

1 hour ago, Tree Magnet said:

 

Seth - this has a bit of a dickish tone to it but I’m going to assume you didn’t mean it that way. If we all stopped riding parts based on their ability to survive you, Jenson might go out of business.



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46 minutes ago, TheX said:

A bit?

 

sorry, let me be clear. i wasn't saying that in a condescending "you people weekend warriors" kind of way. i meant it in that - in reality, nobody but the real deal pros really justify carbon parts. and to be more specific- choosing one of the most essential parts of your bicycle (handlebars) to be made of carbon fiber with all these delicate conditions (very sensitive torque specs) that can be extremely dangerous to your health if not followed perfectly, or even if they are followed correctly, maybe the handlebars have invisible damage and fatigue that like in my video, snaps with zero warning and sends you into oblivion. i literally could've had life changing injuries or even death if that happened to me on any of countless other places on that mountain.

if you wanna pimp out your bike- get a badass carbon frame, get carbon cranks, even get carbon wheels, whatever.. if the carbon suddenly snaps or fails on any off those places (maybe other than cranks), more than likely you will hear a cracking noise or something, pull your bike over to the side of the trail, discover the broken part, bitch and moan, and walk back to the car. but if your handlebar(s) suddenly snaps off, you're basically guaranteed to eat total shit. otb, faceplant, loose all control, chest/face smashes into stem, body smash into whatever you are close to. I'm just saying if theres any part that probably should NOT be carbon, its your handlebars. because they have the highest consequence for failure.

i apologize if i sounded like a dick. but also, vibration shouldn't be the reason why you buy carbon bars. if you're having vibration problems, its probably a suspension tuning problem (too much air pressure/spring rate, or too much dampening), or too much tire pressure. you shouldn't be trying to control how smooth your bike rides with the rigid components.

I'm never riding carbon bars again, and will usually choose aluminum frames over carbon now too. 

my angle on this is that there are plenty of videos out there of carbon bars snapping all over the internet. and now, one of your local fellow riders (ME) just posted a video of them snapping out of nowhere on saturday and me almost getting really hurt. these were name brand carbon bars. no ali express china bars here.. and you still question how safe they are or aren't.

so rock on dudes, get carbon bars, but after the evidence I've provided, don't expect sympathy from me if the same thing happens to you after reading this. hopefully it doesn't but you had your warning. that is all

 

Edited September 3, 2018 by Seths Pool

[TheX]

My full suspension bike has an alloy frame, and bar, etc. It's still faster than I am.

[throet]

12 minutes ago, Seths Pool said:

I'm just saying if theres any part that probably should NOT be carbon, its your handlebars. because they have the highest consequence for failure.

So why did you have them on your bike, especially riding downhill? Is it this single incident that made you draw this conclusion or have you done sufficient research to know these things simply don't happen with aluminum bars?

15 minutes ago, Seths Pool said:

vibration shouldn't be the reason why you buy carbon bars. if you're having vibration problems, its probably a suspension tuning problem (too much air pressure/spring rate, or too much dampening), or too much tire pressure. you shouldn't be trying to control how smooth your bike rides with the rigid components.

My bike came with carbon bars, and when I noticed how much better my arms felt when riding on them, I bought a pair for my second bike. No matter how "smooth your bike rides", there will be vibrations passing through the handle bars. Carbon absorbs those vibrations much better than aluminum. For somebody with tendinitis or other issues, that can make a big difference. I've heard that titanium does an even better job dampening vibrations but I'm not sure how much stronger it is. 

22 minutes ago, Seths Pool said:

don't expect sympathy from me if the same thing happens to you after reading this

I actually appreciate the alert and certainly have thought about the consequences of a bar failing. I'd really like to see the manufacturers publish better safety information relating to stuff like this, but of course it is an inherently dangerous sport to begin with. 

 

[Seths Pool]

8 minutes ago, throet said:

So why did you have them on your bike, especially riding downhill? Is it this single incident that made you draw this conclusion or have you done sufficient research to know these things simply don't happen with aluminum bars?

My bike came with carbon bars, and when I noticed how much better my arms felt when riding on them, I bought a pair for my second bike. No matter how "smooth your bike rides", there will be vibrations passing through the handle bars. Carbon absorbs those vibrations much better than aluminum. For somebody with tendinitis or other issues, that can make a big difference. I've heard that titanium does an even better job dampening vibrations but I'm not sure how much stronger it is. 

I actually appreciate the alert and certainly have thought about the consequences of a bar failing. I'd really like to see the manufacturers publish better safety information relating to stuff like this, but of course it is an inherently dangerous sport to begin with. 

 

Just took this picture right now 🙂 

my 2017 intense recluse came with the race face bars new, then i bought 2 pairs of the chroma BZA at the same time for two different bike builds. after the first pair of BZAs broke i replaced them with aluminum and said if/when the last pair of BZAs broke i would never buy carbon bars again. and here we are

Edited September 3, 2018 by Seths Pool

[Seths Pool]

👆

 

since about may of last year 

[throet]

1 minute ago, Seths Pool said:

Just took this picture right now 🙂 

Obvious solution - buy Renthal!

Seriously dude I'm really glad you're OK. That is truly some scary shit. I did snap a carbon brake lever the other day after washing out on a sharp turn, but the only consequence was having to finish my ride with a sharp, nubby front brake lever.    

[Albert]

That's pretty scary.  I saw the video you posted in the Angelfire thread.  So you've broken three carbon bars?  Over the course of how many years?  I'm impressed that you keep using them!

[JRA]

On 9/1/2018 at 9:03 PM, crazyt said:

I heard that carbon bars might not be that safe but Im not sure. Asking for a friend.

Over torque on that dropper lever bruh?

 

[Tree Magnet]

Glad you’re ok dude. That is some scary chit.


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[AustinBike]

I believe there is a difference between carbon bars for XC riding and carbon bars for DH riding. 

And, i’ve Ridden with people who have snapped Aluminum bars. I remember Bizzaro walking his bike out of RHR after a hunk off a bridge. 

[Seths Pool]

41 minutes ago, JRA said:

Over torque on that dropper lever bruh?

 

theres been discussion about that. but that dropper lever tightens with a 3mm allen wrench. its gonna pre pretty hard in my opinion to he-man torque a 3mm allen wrench so hard it crushes carbon underneath it to the point it snaps of under the weight of me riding on it. and for whatever its worth, it took about zero torque to loosen it off of the broken piece of handlebar

[AntonioGG]

51 minutes ago, Seths Pool said:

theres been discussion about that. but that dropper lever tightens with a 3mm allen wrench. its gonna pre pretty hard in my opinion to he-man torque a 3mm allen wrench so hard it crushes carbon underneath it to the point it snaps of under the weight of me riding on it. and for whatever its worth, it took about zero torque to loosen it off of the broken piece of handlebar

This is actually an interesting point.  I think it's easy to create a lot of pressure and damage a tube of any kind, but I wonder how much it would take.  I bet it's less than it takes to strip a 3mm bolt.  The fact it took zero torque to remove tells me it was crushed.

I know I don't even use the cheap clicker torque wrench for my bar,  I use only a beam wrench on my levers and bar ends.  I used to exclusively ride Truvativ (really not that expensive) but my latest bike came with an Enve.  So far so good.  I put about 10k miles on the Truvativ that was on my Tallboy, now it's my wife's bike.  Still looks good.

I was also looking at the Chromag page.  From the info on their website, it's not a company that inspires confidence in me (translate as: I wouldn't buy from them).  They have a lot of sales people, and graphic designers, and apparently one--maybe--technical dude.  I didn't see an engineer listed on there.  I was concerned with the unidirectional fiber they claim is good for their bars.  I'm no ME but I believe I'd want parallel fibers along the length for shear strength, as well as circumferential fibers for crush strength.

[Chief]

I had a set of Chromag bars for my bike. Didn't like them, way too flexy. My Easton bars are much stiffer.

[HoneyBadger]

Seth, I think Chromag is the problem, not all carbon bars. Buy Renthal Carbon Fatbar, you'll be happy.