Along the lines of the Chinese knock off frame discussion, has anyone got any experience with unbranded Chinese carbon fiber bars? Run the other direction or are hylix or dengfu OK? Never seen much talk about this? Strikes me a bar failure could be at least as bad as steerer failure. Thanks.
I used a set that came with my FM098 from Dengfu from April last year up through yesterday. Just switched them out for the S-Works Aerofly as I was looking for something with internal routing and an aero profile. Nothing that ever concerned me while I was using the bar.
Thanks … So they didn’t break on the first bump. They’re price looks pretty good.
Definitely not. Just the other day I managed to hit a recessed manhole cover at about 45-50mph. Fork did not implode and bars are still in one piece. Works for me.
why anyone would want carbon bars I never know. they’re the first things to go ( and a very high chance of doing so) if you hit the deck.
Is that right? Didn’t know that carbon bars are more susceptible to failure than aluminum which can fatigue fail. Seems to be a pretty big weight savings with carbon and lots of both higher end road and tri bars seem to have adopted carbon.
Go do some research on fatigue failure. Fatigue failure is highly unlikely on any aluminium handlebars if installed correctly. Unless you’ve caused a crack of some sort. with regular maintenance and cleaning on your bike aluminium parts will last years. they use aluminium parts in aircraft and car mainframes, for crying out loud, and you’re worried about fatigue failure of aluminium bike handlebars???
carbon is not immune to fatigue failure as well. cause a crack above critical crack length and it is going to fail, eventually. it is, much more resistant than alumnium to corrosive forces of sweat and rain, if that is what you meant.
handlebars are usually the very first part of the bike to hit the ground in a crash. if going fast, they will be ‘dragged’ along the road surface, in effect sandpapering it. if you do that to a carbon part, you’re effectively delaminating carbon fiber layers, which will cause loss of structural integrity. especailly if yo do reach the structural layers of CF. sandpaper a metal part ( even severely and you will not significantly degrade the strength.) CF is NOT a weak material. but appreciation of it’s vulnerabilities and modes of failure is required when using it. wonder why the majority of protour riders use alu handlebars. especially sprinters? becuase they know hitting the deck is a near certainty. and they also know that if they absolutely need to get the job done, alu is more reliable.
yes, there are weight and aero savings to be had on CF handlebars. the question of whether you think something really expensive ( and relatively important to your safety) is worth the risk tradeoff is up to you. there are many very good alu aerobars out there that can be had for a reasonable price- the vision aero base bar an the zipp alumina come to mind.
Thanks. Yes looks like you’re bang on the money here. Pro cyclists seem to prefer aluminum and I presume that’s a well educated decision. Will stick to aluminum bars and stem.
How much of that is preferring them over getting bike up to UCI minimum weight limits I wonder?
Pro cyclists seem to prefer aluminum and I presume that’s a well educated decision.
Bad presumption.
Any given bar will have various durability/strength properties. It is entirely possible and sometimes the case that an aluminum bar will be less durable than a particular carbon in every way, sometimes it is the reverse.
Designing and building a carbon fiber bar well involves a bit more skill though, which is why one might avoid generic, or older model carbon fiber bars. Someone posted just a week ago or so about their knock-off carbon bar that broke on them.
But aluminum breaks too!
Yeah, the only bar I’ve ever seen break was aluminum. It just snapped, I was riding with him when it happened. Required a ride to the hospital for some stitches, luckily nothing worse as he wasn’t going that fast. I will say he was a very big and strong guy. The bar in question was a couple seasons old. This was quite a few years ago when we still used the old style quill stems and bars had a reinforcing sleeve in the center. Most people didn’t use torque wrenches back then but the design of the stems meant it was harder to overtorque the stem as it was a pinch bolt design rather than a two piece clamp.
That top one looks like an over-tightened clamp…
I rode unbranded chinese road bars for about 8,000 miles (from Hongfu). No crashes, but tons of racing and hard climbing and descending. They were fine, if a bit noodley. I would definitely consider the copy of the 3T Ergonova, if only for the shape. I wouldn’t ride a counterfeit, though (for many reasons).
If you want carbon bars, it’s not a big jump from a nice pair of aluminum to something like the FSA K-Force bars. I scored mine, brand new, from Fleabay for $95 shipped. They’ve been good to me for several thousand miles, are stiff enough for a joe like me, and are 210 g. Considering I was riding 310 g FSA Omegas, that’s a lot of weight.
Pros run aluminum bars for two reasons: weight and durability. If anyone’s been watching bike racing this week, you’ll notice that the pros go down a LOT. Aluminum is probably less likely to fail catastrophically. As also mentioned, it helps keep their bikes within the 15-lb minimum weight limit. The point there is that they could ride a heavier frame, but marketing says they should ride the nicest ones. They could ride heavier shifters, but marketing requires they ride high-end stuff. The bars are a nice oversight (and can be written off as more ‘crash-resistant’).