mikearena

So, riding home tonight I ate it pretty hard. Going down a dark street at about 15-20mph, without adequate lighting, my front wheel went into a pothole and didn't come out. Good times. I'm alright, the bike's good. It might need some new bar tape.

How many serious crashes would you have before replacing your aluminum handlebars? This marks two on the left side of my bullhorns. Thanks.

Agent4573

How bad did it bend the bars?

onetwentyeight 

I didn't dump mine till I had a spill that bent them. *shrug* I think they can handle a good amount of abuse.

mikearena

The bars are still straight, and they don't have any more flex to them than they used to.

teiaperigosa

my aluminum bars are slightly lopsided....they still work tho

visitordesign

i've spilled at least a dozen times on mine. they're scratched and beaten up, but still feel good and don't seem warped or bent. ride 'em til they just look wrong...

AfterThisNap

Aluminum has a much lower elastic modulous than steel or other materials; it has more of a tendency to break than bend once pushed past it's elastic limit. It's fatigue life is also much lower.
Bottom line is that if you see any visual deformation, the bar is compromised and should be replaced. If you crashed really hard and directly on the bars, you might want to replace them. Having them flop onto concrete every now and then is probably ok.

mikearena

This is what I was thinking, and hoping to hear. Thanks!

WithNail

hey! I've lost count of how many times I've crashed on my steel drops but I think they bent after the fourth or fifth crash. I can't really tell except for one side hits my downtube and the other side doesn't.