Easton knows of this issue. You must have one of the "older" EC90 bars. The newer ones have a "roughened" area for the clamp. Having said that, I still never felt very comfortable with my EC90 bar as I felt like I needed to clamp it too hard for it not to slip (and that was the newer one with the roughened area). BTW, I was using a Ritchey WCS 4 bolt faceplate stem. I have also used Ritchey bars (no real issue) and now I have settled on Deda bars (magic, newton, 215, etc. - hey, U.S. Postal likes them). The Deda 215s weigh 215g (imagine the name) and the lightest EC90 is 180g. That 35g is just not worth it; plus, I honk pretty hard on my handlebars when climbing out of the saddle and I like knowing I have a rock solid front end.

I guess the idea of a carbon bar makes sense to absorb some road vibration, but just use the Specialized bar phat/gel tape and be done with it. Ane a carbon fiber stem makes absolutely NO sense (other than aesthetics if you just love that carbon weave).

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Fatigue is biochemical, not biomechanical.
- Andrew Coggan, PhD