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best material for handle bar?
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gsxrawd
Oct 5, 08 14:42
Post #1 of 21 (336 views)
best material for handle bar?
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On a recent group ride one of the guys said "the best material for handle bar is aluminum". I disagree. what do you guys think?
jackmott
Oct 5, 08 14:45
Post #2 of 21 (335 views)
Re: best material for handle bar? [gsxrawd]
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I can't fathom why you would post this and not suggest, for example, WHY you disagree, or what you think is the best material.
secondwind
Oct 5, 08 15:01
Post #3 of 21 (329 views)
Re: best material for handle bar? [gsxrawd]
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I personally agree when given the alternative is carbon. My buddy who worked in the auto racing industry swears by carbon fiber. But while I have a carbon frame I refuse to ride carbon for the stem and the handlebars simply for the reason that when it fails, it fails completely, and the time that it does fail will probably be an extremely dangerous situation such as an out of the saddle sprint.
Even if the carbon is sound and without flaw when you buy the bike, all it takes is a mechanic who thinks he has a torque wrench built into his arm to jeopardize the structural integrity. At least with aluminum/steel/ti you get a heads up before the break, or at least it doesn't shear completely.
(This post was
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rroof
Oct 5, 08 15:04
Post #4 of 21 (323 views)
Re: best material for handle bar? [gsxrawd]
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Yes, alloy. T6/7075 is nice and weighs about the same as a carbon bar. 6061 alloy much more stout but a bit heavy. No carbon bars for me, thanks!
____________________________________
Fatigue is biochemical, not biomechanical.
- Andrew Coggan, PhD
Record10Carbon
Oct 5, 08 15:33
Post #5 of 21 (300 views)
Re: best material for handle bar? [rroof]
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Yes, alloy. T6/7075 is nice and weighs about the same as a carbon bar. 6061 alloy much more stout but a bit heavy. No carbon bars for me, thanks!
Amen - I do however have a carbon(ish) base on the Carbon X - Ti extentions.
Khai
Oct 5, 08 15:43
Post #6 of 21 (290 views)
Re: best material for handle bar? [gsxrawd]
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<If you're gonna be dumb, you gotta be tough>
Get Fitter!
Proud member of the Smartasscrew, MONSTER CLUB
Get your FIX today?
rroof
Oct 5, 08 16:01
Post #7 of 21 (278 views)
Re: best material for handle bar? [Khai]
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Oh very nice ... so when you getting Vanilla'd?
____________________________________
Fatigue is biochemical, not biomechanical.
- Andrew Coggan, PhD
Lazy Ben
Oct 5, 08 16:08
Post #8 of 21 (270 views)
Re: best material for handle bar? [gsxrawd]
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A nice carbon-drillium composite should work for you!
My current road bike came specced with a carbon bar. It's no better than a decent alloy one and I don't particularly trust it. I'm intending to replace it after one year's use with a nice alloy one. If it had come with a carbon stem that would already be off the bike.
If you must have carbon everything for god's sake buy a decent torque wrench.
Forget speedwork. Speedwork is the icing on the cake and you don't have a cake yet. - MattinSF
android
Oct 5, 08 16:17
Post #9 of 21 (258 views)
Re: best material for handle bar? [secondwind]
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Even if the carbon is sound and without flaw when you buy the bike, all it takes is a mechanic who thinks he has a torque wrench built into his arm to jeopardize the structural integrity. At least with aluminum/steel/ti you get a heads up before the break, or at least it doesn't shear completely.
So buy a torque wrench and don't let anybody else touch your bike.
android
Oct 5, 08 16:19
Post #10 of 21 (255 views)
Re: best material for handle bar? [Khai]
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A tri bike with custom track bars. Very cool! :-)
cerveloguy
Oct 5, 08 16:28
Post #11 of 21 (248 views)
Re: best material for handle bar? [gsxrawd]
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Personally I wouldn't ride a carbon bar unless it was reinforced some way such as my Kestrel drop bar is with kevlar. I don't believe the dampening is that significant between the two. You'll reduce road humm more with a good tape than the bar material IMO.
"OK, I'll admit I screwed up the facts"
cdw
Oct 5, 08 17:32
Post #12 of 21 (225 views)
Re: best material for handle bar? [gsxrawd]
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Carbon in a bar is a good example of carbon, for carbon's sake. In truth, except for the frame and wheels, carbon fibre is a pretty silly thing to use for bike components. Do carbon bars, cranksets, derailleurs, stems, seats, ect, really offer a performance improvement over aluminum? No, they don't, unless you are counting grams as a weight weenie.
Chad
secondwind
Oct 5, 08 17:33
Post #13 of 21 (223 views)
Re: best material for handle bar? [android]
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Even if the carbon is sound and without flaw when you buy the bike, all it takes is a mechanic who thinks he has a torque wrench built into his arm to jeopardize the structural integrity. At least with aluminum/steel/ti you get a heads up before the break, or at least it doesn't shear completely.
So buy a torque wrench and don't let anybody else touch your bike.
Because unfortunately defects do happen in carbon and even the slightest issue can be propagated with regular wear and tear. Then there's the issue with wrecking. Even if the bike looks good there's no 100% way to guarantee the integrity of the carbon with out having it scanned (and even then I don't know if that can guarantee the material to 100%).
For me personally, the risk just isn't worth it. Let's say 1 out 100,000 carbon handlebars/stem fail in their lifetime during a ride. I still wouldn't want to roll the dice on that no matter how light or comfortable they are when the potential consequences could be my face smashing into the front wheel at 40 mph.
mckenzie
Oct 5, 08 17:54
Post #14 of 21 (203 views)
Re: best material for handle bar? [secondwind]
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i'm no material science guy, but how much 'stronger' is a high end, lightweight alloy bar? aren't these just as susceptible to unseen damage in a drop/crash scenario? maybe it's my misconception, but when we talk about the best of anything, it's going to be expensive, and it's going to be reasonably fragile.
it seems that everyone wants a carbon bike, but no one wants carbon bars. seems interesting.
and for the record, i do not support carbon for carbon's sake, nor do i subscribe to the weight weenies need for the lightest everything.
mckenzie
secondwind
Oct 5, 08 20:38
Post #15 of 21 (170 views)
Re: best material for handle bar? [mckenzie]
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i'm no material science guy, but how much 'stronger' is a high end, lightweight alloy bar? aren't these just as susceptible to unseen damage in a drop/crash scenario? maybe it's my misconception, but when we talk about the best of anything, it's going to be expensive, and it's going to be reasonably fragile.
They aren't necessarily stronger per se, they just don't fail catastrophically like carbon does. Typically at worst you'll get a serious deformation (i.e. a bend/tear in the material) but you won't get a complete break typical of a carbon fiber failure of the handlebar or stem.
Example:
http://cozybeehive.blogspot.com/...ndlebar-failure.html
cyclenutnz
Oct 5, 08 20:59
Post #16 of 21 (158 views)
Re: best material for handle bar? [secondwind]
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They aren't necessarily stronger per se, they just don't fail catastrophically like carbon does. Typically at worst you'll get a serious deformation (i.e. a bend/tear in the material) but you won't get a complete break typical of a carbon fiber failure of the handlebar or stem.
You can still get sudden and complete separation of alloy bars, even fairly heavy ones. Stress risers are bad, uneven stem clamping forces can make bad things happen too. Luckily I've not crashed on the two occasions it's happened to me.
canuck8
Oct 6, 08 0:37
Post #17 of 21 (130 views)
Re: best material for handle bar? [cdw]
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Carbon in a bar is a good example of carbon, for carbon's sake. In truth, except for the frame and wheels, carbon fibre is a pretty silly thing to use for bike components. Do carbon bars, cranksets, derailleurs, stems, seats, ect, really offer a performance improvement over aluminum? No, they don't, unless you are counting grams as a weight weenie.
Chad
Good points here Chad.
I ride a Titanium frame with VisionTec Base Bar and R-Bend clip on's for the OP.
But I do use Real Design Carbon Fibre Forks...............................................
I have never actually given too much thought to the "integrity" per se of the front end..........until now !
Terry
" Dream big and strive to separate yourself"
Chris Lieto...Oct. 2006
secondwind
Oct 6, 08 0:47
Post #18 of 21 (130 views)
Re: best material for handle bar? [cyclenutnz]
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It's possible, yes, but much more unusual when compared to carbon fiber material. I'll take the stress/strain curve and properties of an alloy over carbon fiber any day. Carbon fiber just does not fatigue well or allow very much plastic deformation, if at all. It simply fails once its ultimate strength limit has been reached.
Again, I don't hate carbon and I understand it's use. I ride a carbon frame, just all my points of contact (save for the seatpost) to that frame are an alloy. If the chainstay fails I'm not going to die. If I'm putting the hammer down to bridge the gap and all of a sudden my hands are torquing a bar with no anchor bad things are going to happen.
cyclenutnz
Oct 6, 08 1:06
Post #19 of 21 (124 views)
Re: best material for handle bar? [secondwind]
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I'm with you on preferring alloy to carbon. I was just pointing out that it can happen with any material, I think the main fault in my case was the stem and other incidences I know of have been guys nicking the bars when cutting stuff. So the moral of the story is to get good quality alloy bars and stem and inspect them for damage occasionally.
On my road bikes I don't even use a carbon post (no choice on tt bike), I like stuff that I can easily afford to replace and that is proven (can you say thompson post).
zebragonzo
Oct 6, 08 2:09
Post #20 of 21 (115 views)
Re: best material for handle bar? [cyclenutnz]
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It depends!
The thing about carbon is that it tends to fail due to impacts and even very small ones can do the job. The only part of a bike that I guarantee will hit the ground when you crash is the bars.
The UK Track cycling team had ultra high tech drop bars that were aerodynamic and v. stiff. They had a big enough budget that they could afford to replace them. I have aluminium bars because I couldn't afford to replace them every time I crash.
Johnny99
Oct 6, 08 6:33
Post #21 of 21 (70 views)
Re: best material for handle bar? [gsxrawd]
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I would go with aluminum because steel handlebars are getting hard to find.
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