crash66

I searched on this topic but couldn't find anything.

Has anyone heard about, or tried, using home-repair type expanding foam inside aluminum handlebars to quiet some of the road vibration? Seems like it would work in theory. Not interested in carbon bars.

Thoughts?

AEO

quiet? as in they're emitting a loud metalic noise from it?
or you mean deaden vibration being transmitted to your hands?

my guess is that it would stiffen the bar up even more. Adding mass helps reduce sound transmission because the foam absorbs noise waves, but the wave length from road buzz might be different than audible vibrations.
or you can just buy another bar of the same make and model and use some foam in that to test your theory.

bonechilling

Shouldn't quality cork tape give you the effect you're looking for?

^oZ

Bontrager's Buzz Kill barends:

otismedina

That sounds like a brilliant idea. And if it doesn't work, at least your bars will be highly buoyant.

BillyD

Don't do it!

That crap is probably one of the worst inventions ever. People use it for all the wrong situations. Yours would be one of the worst. (Can you imagine having that sh__ f'ing up your bike??)

jameyj

+1 on this idea vs. expanding foam. I find them to work quite well.

crash66

Got the Buzz Kills.Was just pondering the other idea.*

vic32amg

try it!! why not. true Temper uses a similiar idea in their golf clubs shafts. it helps dampen the vibration on a miss hit.. ( i wouldn't know be cause i never miss hit )

kudude

just do it with the bars off the bike, then reinstall. +1 on that stuff all over your bike (and in your headset) being bad.

Rutnick

just get some velox end plugs. rubber, cheap, does the same thing as buzzkills.

waterrockets 

If your handle bars are buzzing, you're running too much tire pressure. You'll go faster if you let out enough pressure to eliminate that amount of vibration. Imagine climbing and descending little 1mm hills every centimeter for your whole ride. Much better to use your tires as suspension and keep your bike riding smooth.

Scatman

Injecting foam into a metal will increase stiffness and reduce transmitted vibration - high-end luxury cars (Infiniti, Merc, BMW, Lexus, etc.) use injected foam into chassis cavities and channels to increase chassis stiffness and reduce NVH in the passenger compartment. However, they use a specially formulated 2-part foam epoxy that has a much higher density than the 'foam-in-a-can' and is corrosion resistant. It also doesn't expand anywhere near as much during the curing process. Wouldn't be cost effective for a bicycle handlebar because of the quantites involved and cost of materials.

photonick

or you could be a man about it haha.

Grambo

Don't do it!!. There are varying types of foam with different expansion qualities. The standard insulating expansion foam expands significantly and is powerful enough to pop windows out of frames, warp door frames and lift shower stalls right off the studs they sit on (just ask someone who has tried to insulate around one of these items). It is certainly strong enough to warp or crack a thin walled AL handlebar. If you really want to try it make sure you get the minimal expanding version. It can be found at Home Depot.

Jynx

it wont crack the bars. Leave the 2 ends open and it will expand out and overflow. No pressure will build up. I have heard of people filling bars and even their aluminum frames to help with vibrations. I have never done it but heard good reviews.

CCFISH81

Dont' do it- Its a rediculous idea-

Volfy

First off, you need to decide what frequency of vibration you are trying to suppress. Filling an aluminum tube with polyurethane foam does deaden vibration at higher frequencies but does little to dampen lower frequency ones, which are responsible for the typical type of road thuds affecting rider comfort.

Take a bare aluminum handlebar. Now flick your finger on it. More than likely it will "ring", much like a metal windchime tube. Now stuff if full of foam, any type of foam, Then flick it again. You will notice it doesn't "ring" or resonate quite as much as before. Those high freuquencies have been effectively attennuated.

Wrapping it with bar tape yields similar results.

Now take that same handlebar, grip it on one end and whack the other end on any hard surface (table, wall, ground, etc.). I doubt any amount or type of foam stuffing inside the tube is going to make the impact any less jarring. That's your road thud.

Now motorcycle handlebars may be a different story. There you do have engine-induced vibrations. The twice-RPM buzz produced by a inline 4cyl. engine is particularly numbing. Back when I was going to engineering school, those of us who ride cruisers did experiment with loading our steel tube type handlebars with varying combination of sand, foam and polyurethane caulk - in an attempt to achieve the right balance of mass damping and resonance deadening. Fun projects they were, but rarely made enough difference to be call significant improvement.

jaxgtr

+1 on these

Ritterview

Might as well be scientific about this. Have a friend fill only one side of the bar with the foam, and not tell you which side. You'll have a case and control side. See if find that either your right or left hand gets less buzz, and then open up the bar plug to se if you were right. Report your results on this thread.

sunburst

Went to a Trek dealer and was mentioning handlebar buzz and Specialized Zertz insert approach. He had an impressive demo (dropped a bar on a hard floor - with and without these buzz-kill barends). So I decided to roll the dice and they worked! Vibration is known to exacerbate carpal tunnel, and I was definitely feeling it.

Btw, they come in two prices, with the better and denser brass ones being about $20. That's what I got. Too bad they are orange.

Doctor Who

Do it. It's not going to hurt anything and will probably work rather well.

onespeedfreak

it's not going to hurt anything to try it and the results might turn out surprisingly good. if not, all you are out is an Al handlebar.

didn't bianchi do something similar with their frames in the b.b. area?

late

Double wrap the bars with Cinelle gel tape. If you want even better... get some Off the Front Grip Shapes so you have a larger area to rest your hands. That way the buzz won't be nailing one small spot.

It's tricky wrapping Grip Shapes and the instructions are useless. You want a couple pair on the outside bend and take one and slide it under part of the hoods
to provide a little support to the heel of your hand when you are on the hoods. Takes a few tries to get it right.