Carbon Bars
 

Hi gang ,
I have a 2017 Trek Domane SL6 Pro. Love the bike a lot. I was wondering if Carbon Bars make that much of a difference??? I have the original Bontrager bars that came with it. Thanks Dale

No.

Depends on why you want them.

If it's to save weight or the cool factor, probably not. If you have hand issues like me (carpel tunnel), or really want to take the road buzz out of you alloy bars, than yeah.

For me, they were one of the best comfort fixes I've done. Since I put mine on the bike (Fsa K-Force light) My hands rarely bother me anymore.

Carbon handlebars are too risky and too fragile They can easily crack and break. I would never use one.

First hand experience on this one. Customer of mine came in with busted up bike and a busted up shoulder, and contusions on his face..The Easton C90 carbon bars snapped off above the brake lever. Catastrophic failure. No, mounting bolts were not over-torqued. He dropped the bike about 6 months prior to the failure. Literally dropped it when taking it off the roof of his car. This moved the brake lever in and he just moved it back into position and thought nothing of it. I can just about guarantee this never would have happened with metal a handlebar.

Carbon bars are not necessary and I agree they are too fragile for every day common use. Not safe enough for me to use.

Everyday common use includes dropping your bike from the height of the top of a car?

I like the Zipp carbon bars I put on my bike but better road buzz absorption is a fallacy, imo. They really don't feel a lot different from alloy bars in that regard. They are very stiff though, which I consider a good thing.

I put carbon bars on my road bikes. I have a bad neck and the bars absorb more shock than alloy.I also get elbow tendinitis and find carbon helps on long rides. I have had the bars break in a bad crash and have used both American and Chinese bars and find no difference except for cost.

I personally knew of two mountain bikers who I used to ride with, one of them had his handlebars break and the other had his seat post break. Both breaks happened during a normal trail ride not a crash. Failed without any warning.

Carbon bars are great. One of the first things I did was drop the bike onto the handlebars from the top of a minivan (2004 Toyota Emasculator). They were fine. They still are fine. The bike is steel, fwiw.

Carbon bars help damp high-frequency vibration and lessen fatigue.

Carbon bike frames, however, asplode and kill thousands of people every day.

Carbon smarbon.

Everyone has a right to be wrong. If you don't think carbon drop bars help deaden road buzz, you're absolutely exercising your right. If you also think they're inherently dangerous and are just going to "fail for no reason," you're just over-achieving.

Anecdotal evidence: 11,000 miles on Easton EC90 Equipe, 7,100 miles on K Force Carbon Compact. <checks pulse> Confirmed, not dead.

"Carbon is a Killer!"

Always god for a couple of pages when the weather turns nasty.

I am a carbon-based life form. A couple years ago I fell off my bike and snapped a clavicle. This proves that carbon is deadly.

I just cannot find anyone selling an alloy skeleton in my size.

I got a 2014 Trek Domane which had Bontrager alloy bars. Didn't like em. Too short - my hands would overlap the ends. I put Ritchey Superlogic Logic II carbon bars on. Really like em. I think that they dampen the road noise.

Depends on the bars. Carbon bars can be made to be super stiff and beat you up or super flexy so it is hard to make a blanket statement. The carbon bars on my mountain bike have tons of complaints about them being tooooooo flexy but the mountain bike I put them on is a rigid so super flexy seemed perfect and they do help there. My road bike I bought used with a carbon FSA bars and stem. Not sure how much they help but they haven't broken and tried to kill me yet so I'm happy with them. Just don't buy cheapo no-name bars or stem. I've bought a cheapo $20 carbon seat post before and had it fail but that is just an annoyance and not really dangerous.

Steel is real

Hi Dale,

You should try asking this same question within the road cycling specific subforum!
You will sure to find differing opinions there!

https://www.bikeforums.net/road-cycling/

God forbid there must be people with deathwishes out there riding bikes made and assembled with componentry made *ENTIRELY* out of carbon! :rolleyes: :lol:

Dropping a bike while removing it from a roof rack is not common, but I have seen it done once or twice, mostly by shorter people and women. Happens enough to where it is one of those "sh*t happens" moments. The fall is only a few feet, and the velocity sustained is minimal. Really should not present a problem for the handlebar, however for this fellow it did end up with a major failure 6 months down the road. The unpredictability of carbon is real in a situation like this. I have crashed, bent the bars and kept riding for years with aluminum bars without trouble. I am certain carbon either would have snapped upon impact or down the road some after crashes like that. In fact this summer I replaced the bent bars I have been using for 4 years. Still have another bar on a different bike that are bent, but don't plan on replacing them as they have been on the bike for at least a decade.

Poo-Poo those of us that see carbon handlebars as an unnecessary risk, however when your carbon bars snap off during a ride, you will understand. I don't base jump or sky dive either because those activities involve entirely too much risk that can easily be avoided. Does that make me a fool? Not in my book. My friend, Jim, will agree. He is 3 inches shorter now than before he jumped. Chute malfunctioned and opened late. He hit the ground pretty hard. At least he has a nice long scar on his back to show for it.

I'm a recreational rider, and I can only share with you personal experience. I used to have hand numbness riding a local 20 miles loop at 14 mph and 80+/- cadence. After I switched to a carbon handlebar, the numbness went away, and I enjoyed riding a whole lot more.

add gel pads under the tape for about the same benefit.

I'm pretty sure I have a couple busted alloy handlebars in a box somewhere. At one point I was planning on cutting em and using the tubes for something...can't remember what for though.

Didn't break in a crash either, I figure they had manufacturing defects, just like anything else could.

That said, I think carbon handlebars, stem etc. are probably the worst places to upgrade if you're on a budget. You'd easily get more performance/comfort out of better wheels and tires.

For me, the only advantage to carbon bars has been that with CF, the manufacturer can shape the bars more readily than with alloy, additionally providing routing channels for the cables etc. I went from Zipp SL80s to almost identically sized FSA K-force Compacts and enjoy the shape difference. Can't speak offhand to comfort being affected, and they seem about as stiff. OTOH.. I would never consider any CF stem.. that's a place I don't see where any functionality advantage is gained.

As one additional point.. alloy handlebars USED to be lesser weight until some sorta new watchdog regs made them heavier. My original bars, if you look at the linked chart were 3T Zepp XL's.. big ergo bars with a lot of drop. And.. their weight is identical (from 2002 spec) than my 2017 FSA CF bars (215 grams). Could be? some of the broken alloy bars preceded the new safety regs.

WW RoadBars

Made riding my road bikes fun again. The aluminum ones I had transferred to much vibration to my hands on both my steel and aluminum bikes. I switched both to some chinese carbon bars, and hand numbness isn't the issue that it once was. I do worry about them failing, and I hope it doesn't happen to me. But the numbness going away has been worth the risk.