Originally Posted by BikeWise1

A few years ago, a customer came in for a tune up and bar tape job. Upon removing the old tape, I realized the bar was covered in a foul-smelling salt/sweat/powdery crust mix. This man's sweat was particularly corrosive, and there were literally holes all the way through the aluminum in several places, mainly just below the brake levers. These were unhardened plain alloy bars. Horrified, I called him and told him of the need to replace them. He brushed this off as an attempt to pad the bill and told me to retape the bars. I did as he asked, but noted my objections on the work order. 4 months later, I received a letter from an attorney seeking responsible parties to the failure of Mr. X's bicycle after we had worked on it. The bars had failed while Mr. X was sprinting in the drops and he had crashed badly, taking a few others down in the process. I faxed over a copy of the original work order with my objections noted, and underlined the part about "CUSTOMER TOLD DO NOT RIDE HIS LITESPEED BICYCLE, SERIAL # XXX UNTIL HANDLEBARS ARE REPLACED". Below that was a line that said "I acknowledge the danger and will not ride this bicycle until properly repaired", and patted myself on the back for having had the foresight to have the customer sign underneath. I followed that with a letter asking if his client was an adult, capable of making decisions, possessing the ability to follow directions, and was able to comprehend written English.

I never heard from either of them again.

So I get why manufacturers cover their products in warnings, but with handlebars, they're generally pretty cheap, easy to replace, and not worth breaking your face over. When in doubt, replace it.