First upgrade, stem or bars?
 

Upgrading to carbon 1 at a time, is one a better upgrade than the other?

How about seat post! It may have more impact on your ride.

Carbon stem does not matter- weight, function, even looks. Not really an upgrade.

Carbon seatpost OTOH is worthwhile.

Neither. Stick with aluminum.

Spend your money where you will get bang for the buck, how about nice tires??

Sorry, meant first upgrade between the 2. Already have the carbon seatpost and wheels.

Bars.

As [MENTION=300127]woodcraft[/MENTION] said, a carbon stem isn't really an upgrade. It is actually a waste of money. There are many ultra high end alloy stems.

Either way, carbon or alloy, upgrade the bar first.


-Tim-

Get the bars next. If you want a lighter stem for cheap, check out the Kalloy Uno stem which is around 98 grams for 100mm made of 7050 T6 aluminum. Lighter than some carbon stems.

^^^^ bars. Owned it all. carbon everything. Stem 'and' seatpost in Al doesn't matter. I have ridden one of the most forgiving carbon seatposts that pros ride...the FSA Kforce lite with great 2 bolt clamp, I like the Zipp Course Al post even better for a fraction of the price.

Biggest bang with bars is:
1. fractional vibration reduction...hard to feel.
2. Carbon can be molded in exactly the shape that is most ergonomic...not limited by Al hydroforming.
3. Slight weight reduction.

The first question is, "Why?" Comparable aluminum and carbon bars and stems tend to perform about the same and weigh about the same. And, on the negative side, carbon tends to fail all at once while aluminum usually bends a bit and gives you a warning.

Personally I would go with the seat post and wheel set before stem or handlebars.

Bars. Get wing bars for added aero and comfort.

Stem upgrades are basically not upgrades unless you need a different geometry.

+1 on wing bars. Also consider your position and comfort in the drops and how often you use the drops. Moving from standard bars to short and shallow made a huge difference for me.

I agree on the Kalloy stem. best value on the market for about Any bike component. Bars ... CF is nice, but as people say, you can get Al for around 210 grams and they are probably safer .... i have both and haven't died, I am not one of the "asplosion" freaks, but why go to CF is Al is just as light?

If you just want to go all CF for no reason but that you want too ... cool. Do it. But what does it matter, which order? If you can barely afford one or the other, i'd question the value of the investment. But .... since it is your cash ... flip a coin.

Tires.