Originally Posted by
Ferrous Bueller
It's incorrect.
The handlebar is a double ended 40cm lever held in place in the middle by a 4cm clamp. All of the forces exerted at the ends of the bars are transmitted through its center, to the stem, and to the head of the fork steerer. The handlebar doesn't need to be very stiff out where the hands are, but does need to be at the center.Stiffening this region motivated the moves from quill to modern stems, from 1" to 1 1/8" steerers, from 26 to 31.8mm daimeter bars, and the adoption of larger diameter 4 bolt stems. All the modern stems are a vast improvement on what came before. Wider cross section stems make a noticeable difference in how much movement is possible at the ends of the handlebar.
Here's some more reading on a 5 yr old test:
http://caletticycles.blogspot.com/20...stiffness.html
seems that the conclusion is basically "if you want stiff don't be so concerned about light", also does not note how much weight was used to get his deflection numbers, nor how stiff his steel bar was (compared to say your typical AL or Carbon drop bars) by noting the gauge of steel and etc. while his finding identified that there is flex in the stem - I don't think anyone has denied that there is - there does not seem to be a comparison to the amount of flex present in typical AL/Carbon bars available these days. a good test that identifies some important data points, but still does not invalidate my hypothesis that the bars flex even more than the stem. more info needed, in other words.