Tandem Cycling - Carbon Bars for Stoker?

Do carbon bars reduce shock to the stockers arms?
If so, is there a particular brand / model that is better at reducing shock?
I would need one that is 26mm diameter.
Threads I have read about this on road bikes vary from absolutely to its not physically possible.
I can say for sure my CF road bike has a smoother ride than a steel or aluminum one.
My stoker has been suffering from shoulder pain likely due to arthritis which seems to get aggravated from cycling. It quite often stops us from riding together.

Thanks

Also how narrow can the stoker bars be? I now have 44cm but wonder it I could go to 42cm.
I have a pretty narrow butt. I saw some Kestrel EMS bars on Ebay for $99.

I have used many carbon bars on my single bikes the flexiest (is that a word) one I have ever used was the FSA K-Wing. I mean scary flexible. Almost unusable if you try to sprint or stand and climb while in the drops. But it did one heck of a job reducing road vibrations.

The bars can only be as narrow as your arse allows. On our tandem too narrow a bar and the back of my thighs hit them at a certain point. My daughter rides 40's on her single and a 42 on the tandem. Those are center to center measurements.

First, before investing in Carbon Bars, you might try something like gel padding to go under the bars. Fizik makes some that I like (http://www.fizik.it/catalog_accessories.aspx?subid=Bar_Gel_and_Bar_Tape_Kit).

Second, be very careful when purchasing used carbon bars. You may not be able to see damage that is there. Even when purchasing new I've never felt comfortable with carbon bars, fearing a catastrophic failure while coming down a hill at 45 mph.

Finally, regarding bar width, I am 5'8", 135 lbs and we have 42s for the stoker. If you are built similarly, you could probably get away with it. One question though, is your pedal stroke in the same plane as the bike or do your knees point out? My stoke is very much in line with the bike. If it wasn't, I don't know if the 42s would work.

...reducing shock?...My stoker has been suffering from shoulder pain likely due to arthritis which seems to get aggravated from cycling. It quite often stops us from riding together...

Rather than trying to find a handlebar that will noticeably absorb shock, I would recommend putting some gel pad inserts of one brand or another under the handlebar tape. I believe that such a product will absorb more vibration than any handlebar. One example: Bike Ribbon gel pad set
http://www.bikesomewhere.com/bikesomewhere.cfm/product/405/3828/16700?g=1
My stoker has similar pads under her handlebar tape.

Also, I believe it's possible that supporting her weight on her arms / shoulders could be the culprit in her shoulder pain. You both will have to explore to find out if arthritis is the major culprit but there's a possibility that improving arm and shoulder muscle tone / strength with some exercises for a couple of weeks (woman's push-up or bench press if you have access to equipment) will make a remarkable difference. If that isn't an option because of the arthritis, having her sit-up straighter would take some weight off of her arms but it will put more on her rear.

I don't know if she is using bull-horn bars or traditional road bars but either way they can be moved back towards her. My wife uses regular road bars but I have noticed that the bull-horn bars on some tandems I have seen have been rotated so that the "horns" are angled up which both reduces the amount the stoker is leaning to reach the horn part of the bar plus it provides a very neutral position / angle for the stoker's wrist and hand.

How narrow? - Perhaps a nearby bike shop will have some old used bars in the 42 size that you can put on quickly and try out to see if you can fit / wedge yourself in there. My stoker has wide bars (46 made for tandem) but I've seen many people riding with 44's and for all I know there's a lot of 42's and I didn't realize it. I don't think her hands and my rear could all fit in the space (I have a 32 inch waist size so I think I'm kind of thin.)

Back to your original question about carbon fiber handlebars. I ride a carbon fiber Kestrel Talon single. My wife rides a Klein Reve X with aluminum main triangle and carbon fork, seat stays and chain stays. We ride a Santana Team Niobium steel (one of the thinnest wall steel tubing available). I have a carbon fiber handlebar. You mentioned your readings of opposing positions about the shock-absorbing qualities of various frame materials. I'm in the camp that there is nothing inherent in any of the various frame materials that makes one absorb more shock than another. It's all about what diameters and wall thicknesses along the tube and joints that the builder uses. I believe that if all of the materials (steel, titanium, aluminum, carbon fiber) were available in an unlimited choice of various diameters and thicknesses, that any particular sort of soft or firm feel could be realized or duplicated in any of the materials. Whether I'm wrong or right in this last paragraph - I don't think you will solve your stoker's problems with carbon fiber handlebars. I do hope you solve them and if it turns out that you solve them with cf bars I'll be glad to acknowledge I'm wrong.

Bloomington, IN

I have used many carbon bars on my single bikes the flexiest (is that a word) one I have ever used was the FSA K-Wing. I mean scary flexible. Almost unusable if you try to sprint or stand and climb while in the drops. But it did one heck of a job reducing road vibrations.

The bars can only be as narrow as your arse allows. On our tandem too narrow a bar and the back of my thighs hit them at a certain point. My daughter rides 40's on her single and a 42 on the tandem. Those are center to center measurements.

I have K-wings on my Roadbike and Tandem - both 44cm and my wife has 42's on her Time road bike as well. I have no idea what you had - but these things are far from flexible. We regularly get out of the saddle on the Tandem and I've never felt a hint of flex in the bars. I love the ergo shape which allows my wrists to lie in the correct position on the flats and the flat section on the hoods with my Campy Ergo levers - since I like to ride in this position alot. I find these to be some of the best bars i've ever owned in the 35+ years i've ridden.

Tandem Dude - 5'8" 135 lbs thats me too!

The bars are drop and not bull horns

It seems the K-wings only come 31.8mm diameter. My stoker stem is 26mm and I don't even see any that are 31.8 except for a $450 carbon job at precision tandems.

Regarding gel pads, we have tried several the current being Aztec.

I did get a longer stem and extended it back as far as it could go.

I think the strength training is a good idea. She has been to a chiropractor and maybe its time to go back and get some training recommendations.

The Kestrel bars on ebay are new and for $99 it might be worth a try. Heck I would get it for my single except I may be getting a new one within the year.

Thanks all

I have K-wings on my Roadbike and Tandem - both 44cm and my wife has 42's on her Time road bike as well. I have no idea what you had - but these things are far from flexible. We regularly get out of the saddle on the Tandem and I've never felt a hint of flex in the bars. I love the ergo shape which allows my wrists to lie in the correct position on the flats and the flat section on the hoods with my Campy Ergo levers - since I like to ride in this position alot. I find these to be some of the best bars i've ever owned in the 35+ years i've ridden.

I too have them and agree with you, Best hand position and stiff.

Hello,
FSA K Wings bars are one of the stiffest bars up there! I used them in World road masters cahmaponships in Austria on two ocassions, many crits, two years ago I could put out 1200 watts on all out 12 sec sprints , No flex very stiff, only problem was that drop bend is tight and can hit on your hand above your wrist in all out sprints.
Person who said they are very flexy, might be using lot of spacers above the headset and upride stem say 16 degree + and on some larger frame bikes that would put ton of flex to front end of the bike.
Now few points advantages about K Wing bars:

Flat top section : Your hand just wraped around the bars more Open position, so more comfort and blood circulation to your entire hands, your hands don't have to be cocked tight as on standard round bars.

Negative: this flat section is flat and big in diameter, so your stoker with very small hands might not be able to use them and benefit from them becouse large oversied tops.

Brake ****er area; here can get tricky again , this area lot longer as on womens specific road bike bars & small gel padding could fix the problem and make better fit for women.

FSA K Wings are not light carbon bars ! becouse all that extra carbon ( wider tops more carbon ) it make them heavier and they are stiff bars becouse more carbon layers are used.

Cool thing about K Wing is that, they have 3cm drop where stem clamps the bar, wich alows you to take extra head set spacers out becouse bar is curver up by the tops and barke levers, so now you have bars lower in the frame and more arero and control & stiffer feel.

We went with 44cm K Wings bars for stoker becouse when we do long climb when you %90 spend on the tops you want to have this area as wide as pasiblle so you can open up your chest and use your lungs mor officent.

If you were to use say 40cm or narrower bar for stoker, she will run out room on the tops for her hands to be straight from the shoulders down to the bars & she will be way restricted with proper use of her lungs, her soulders will be curverd to inside and will block her lungs to use them full %100

Somthing we used durring the Vo2 max tests and results showed diferent wattage and heart rates using diferent width bars.

As someone said before carbon bars will dempen road shock but also using some foam or gel pads fron specialized or others will do the trick for small price.

BTW K Wing will be only in ovesized clamp so Easton might be the way to go.
Good luck with the bars,

Lescycling

My stoker had similar issues. We installed an FSA bar but not the K-Wing. We opted for the shallow drop bar they are now making. It has a flat section however it is not as wide. The K-Wing has an odd dip that I did not like. The shallow drop bars also tend to have a shorter reach to the lever. I am running the same bar now on the front of the tandem and think it works better for me than any other bar I have ever tried.

The first step would be to look at the existing bar and see if you can match it possibly to how her single bar is fit for reach and then possibly a little higher up than on her single bar. This is something you can do right now without making any purchases. You may still opt for the carbon bar, but make sure that you have the existing bar fit as best as it can possibly be fit.

The K-Wing bar and the bar that I installed both use the new wider clamp diameter. For my installation, I had to also purchase a Comotion stoker stem to fit on my Santana since Santana does not make a stoker stem to match this bar diameter. If you do decide to go with a new bar make sure that it actually is a 26.0 and not a 25.8 bar that you are replacing. Many of the bull horn bars that get used on tandems are the 25.8 ones. I know that Santana is using 25.8 on their bikes.

Specialized or Fizik Gel Pads under the bar tape work really well. Also if you can find a stoker stem that will take a 31.8 "oversized" handlebar the Specialized Zertz dampners work really well (have one of these on my single) http://www.specialized.com/bc/SBCEqProduct.jsp?spid=25315

We will have to agree to disagree here. I have switched bars to Zipp SLC2's and they are both lighter and stiffer than the FSA bars. Besides that they come in very close to the advertised weight, unlike FSA. I will continue to recommend bars other than any FSA product including the K-Wing. I have two K-Wing bars each with less than one season use. They are now both in my junk box!

I have two K-Wing bars each with less than one season use. They are now both in my junk box!

You want to send them to me? I'll even pay the shipping!

I'm convinced that if you are looking for stoker hand shock protection, you can do no better than Grab-On handlebar grip tubing. This is much more effective than a carbon bar. We've had it on our stoker bars for a couple of years now and my stoker is very happy with it. It slides on over your existing bars.

I'm convinced that if you are looking for stoker hand shock protection, you can do no better than Grab-On handlebar grip tubing. This is much more effective than a carbon bar. We've had it on our stoker bars for a couple of years now and my stoker is very happy with it. It slides on over your existing bars.

pic snipped
Steve, do you then tape over them?
How thick are they?

Person who don't like the FSA K wing bar.
I will offer you $100 for both of your bars and clean your junk box.
Please let me know,
Lescycling

We use Easton EC90 bars, front and rear, on our all carbon tandem.

It seems the K-wings only come 31.8mm diameter. My stoker stem is 26mm and I don't even see any that are 31.8 except for a $450 carbon job at precision tandems.

Thanks all

Co-motion makes an adjustable stoker stem that fits 31.8 bars (Webcyclery carries it.) We have it on two of our tandems and b/c my stoker prerfers the carbon bars with the flat tops.

Steve, do you then tape over them?
How thick are they?

No, you do not tape over them. The outer surface feels very absorbative and pleasant feeling to the hands. It is squeezable but not excessively so. I am guessing that the wall thickness is about 1/4 inch so it makes the bar noticeably larger in diameter than a single layer of tape. I once tried a double layer of tape and it is about the same diameter as that. You use two pieces per side, one above the brake levers and one below (if you have drop bars). Only one piece needed for cowhorn bars.

To install them you just wet the insides and they slide on quite easily. After they dry they don't squirm.

Tandem Dude - 5'8" 135 lbs thats me too!

I used to be 5'8" and 135 lbs, but that was 20 years ago; I seem to have lost an inch and gained 15 lbs since then.


My stoker stem is 26mm and I don't even see any that are 31.8 except for a $450 carbon job at precision tandems.

I'm not sure exactly what kind of stem you need, but R+E sells an adjustable stoker stem for $200 that allows you to change out only the stem part to get the reach and clamp diameter that you need. If yours will take a 1" quill stem, then you could get a threadless stem adapter and then get the stem to fit the handlebars.


My stoker has been suffering from shoulder pain likely due to arthritis which seems to get aggravated from cycling. It quite often stops us from riding together.

I would consider getting her into an upright riding position to get stress off of her shoulders.

On installing the Maxxi Foam grips, a dab of dishwasher soap on the bars will facilitate installation.
Those grips been around, in some fashion or another, for 25 years.

. Besides that they come in very close to the advertised weight, unlike FSA.

FSA components weigh more than claimed? That's shocking.:rolleyes:

I think FSA is the most notorious for understating weights.