Rajflyboy

https://www.singletracks.com/blog/mt...snaps-mid-air/

Now my question is WHY?

and also was this a carbon fiber bar?

I'm assuming an old bar considering the hammering and abuse this bicycle was getting on a daily basis.

63rickert

Why? Trick riding calls for heavy duty everything. And you better have a good plan for when everything breaks, and it all does.

79pmooney

Looks like CF. The cut portion of the right bar was grey like broken CF, not silver like aluminum. It broke exactly where you would expect the bar to break with either too much loading for the design/manufacturing quality or where the stem might have caused a few broken fibers from a too sharp edge or other poor detail. The aluminum bars I have broken have failed in exactly the same place. Difference was that they did not break off completely and I still had control of the bike.

I now make it a point to replace handlebars before they break.

Rajflyboy

That is scary. How often should bars be changed?

TimothyH

That bar was cracked long before the last jump.


-Tim-

79pmooney

There's no "rule". It depends on the bar, the use, details like are there nicks from the stem?, crash history, weight of the rider, is he kind or abusive to equipment. I listen to my gut. If I don't feel good about it, I replace it or at least start the search for a replacement. I don't ride CF bars because they tent not to show damage and failure is very likely to be as n that video, a full breakage. My aluminum failures have never been total. First was an old, unknown history bar I put on my winter fix gear. I hit an unseen pothole as a car passed me on a New England March training ride. 8 miles later I chanced to look down and "What!!"; my bar was bent 30 degrees exactly where the bar of the video broke. Rode the bike gently 6 miles to the train station, then another mile home.

Second time I felt a little softness to the bar. I'd picked it up second hand, history unknown. I was riding to the velodrome to watch a race. Didn't want to ride the steep downhill with a stop at the bottom going home on bars I didn't trust so I put in a word with the MC that I needed a ride home. A racer drove me home. There was a tiny crack across the top of the bar at the same place.

Oh, I also only use "lesser" thicker walled handlebars, not the ones made very light with high strength aluminum because the lessers tend to crack slower and are more likely to bend before breaking completely.

Ben

Rajflyboy

You would think

Rajflyboy

Good class on handlebars. Thanks.

Cyclist0108

We (I use the term loosely) crushed the end of a mtn bike carbon fiber bar. When I took it off to dispose of, I decided to do an experiment. I put it on the ground and smashed it repeatedly with a sledge hammer that was heavy enough that I wore out before I was able to make a dent in the bars, let alone break them.

They aren't that fragile.

Rajflyboy

That may very well be true. Id prefer something else for now.

63rickert

If pushing it as hard as the guy in video, steel bars and nothing else. Stunt riders use heavy bikes. Real heavy bikes. If you can't do the trick without a light bike you basically can't do the trick. Also for stunt riding bones break a lot. Unavoidably so. Some of us heal faster than others. Only those with a lot of basic sense about how to take a fall and an ability to heal quickly are suited for stunt riding.

Hiro11

Downhill riders use carbon bars all the time. Those guys beat the **** out of their stuff, carbon bars are plenty tough. This was likely a previously damaged bar or over-tightened stem.

TimothyH

Some have already made up their minds and neither facts nor reality nor experience are able to persuade them otherwise.


-Tim-

Rajflyboy

I believe it was one of these as well but I’d still prefer aluminum or steel. Especially for this type of destruction.