Yes both fail. Yes ultimately all products are only as good as the manufacturer and the assembler. Sick of seeing cat 4's and 5's and juniors at races holding 1/2 of a handlebar in their hand. Is it their fault? Yes, but it doesn't change the fact that they are sitting there at the line holding half a handlebar. To date I have not seen an aluminum bar failure in any similar fashion....

...and my National Champ says he's much better than your National Champ...after I asked him if he knew your National Champ and he looked through USAC... :thumb:;)

Then it wasn't aluminum, as that doesn't corrode. Perhaps you meant an aluminum alloy. :)

I recently switched from carbon back to aluminum when I had to replace my ITM stem. The aluminum bars are a little heaver, but I can tell no difference in the ride (Look 585). The Easton bars where about 1/3 the price of carbon bars. I'm very happy with my Easton aluminum bars and Zipp Super Course stem -- also aluminum.

It makes sense (to me) that carbon bars would make less difference in the ride quality on a carbon bike than they would on an aluminum framed bike...if more vibration is already being damped (dampened?) by the carbon frame, there would be less making it to the bars in the first place. that is why i am interested in swapping my carbon bars from my r3sl to my caad 10.

People use bars that don't have a classic bend?

carbon bars are great until you drop your bike at a reasonble pace and they become dangerous to use again.
a lot of pro sprinters use aluminium bars with carbon stems to get the best stiffness, mark cavendishes pro vibe cockpit is this setup

True. ;) I also think that it was an example of galvanic corrosion between the bar and the shifters' clamps, plus the owner thought that sweat was an accelerant, so to speak.

i got easton ec90slx bars from jensonusa for $90 for one of my bikes. i love the slightly oversize bar diameter.

For all those buying the inexpensive carbon bars made overseas, do you know what the differece in quality is between a $100 bar compared to a $300 bar made by a well known manufacturer (FSA, 3T, Easton etc)?
I honestly don't know which is why I'm asking.

Maybe it's just me, but if I were to go carbon I'd rather pay the extra $$$ for something as significant as a well made bar, rather than taking my chances on a generic bar.

My $20 generic carbon water cages on the other hand, that's a different story.

33,000+ miles on Easton c/f handlebars on our road tandem . . . oh yeah, the frame is all c/f too.
Have broken 2 steel tandem frames and steel fork on tandems since 1974. Mileage on frame breakage was 50,000 miles and 56,000 miles.
So now we make it a habit that after 50,000 miles on a frame we design a new one.
Any material can/will fatigue/break eventually.
Pedal on!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem

Just tell me which one of these bars have the cheapest beer.

3T Ergonova. If you dont have 'em, you won't understand.

Can someone help?
Or are all CF bars equal?

i haven't heard any brand names mentioned in the cf bar failure stories...to me having a reputable company who does fatigue/failure testing on their products is important, and seems to be part of what you get for your $. it is much easier to just copy the shape and look of a product than to copy the engineering and testing effort it takes to make a truly good product. when i decided to go with carbon bars, i chose zipp due to those factors...there was no way i was interested in bargain shopping for that purchase.

I don't know anything about the Winwood, but the bars I picked up from Torpedo7 in New Zealand were Uno Ultralites. The maximum width was 44cm. I think I paid around $25 for them.

I don't have any experience with cheap/generic carbon bars, but I see it like this;
If you have children and had the option of putting them on a bus built by Volvo
or a bus built by Yugo, which would you choose to send your kids to school in?

;)


Yes. ^^^^^

Really... the logic defies logic.

I appreciate the anology, and I know all about high grade carbon bars.
But I'm interested in knowing what quality carbon and quality goes into the inexpensive bars.
It's one thing to have cheap carbon water cages fail (and I've lost 3 water bottles with mine). It's quite another to have your inexpensive carbon bars fail at 30+mph.
I suppose I'll do some homework when I return from my ride.

Doplina recently published a dissertation on a cheap versus expensive or imitation versus real, or knock-off versus legitimate. But he ws mainly discussing the Chinese factories.

The bars that I have that I paid $85 for have a high quality finish on the outside which is better than the Eastons I also have, and on the inside MUCH better than the Eastons. The cheap bars were sourced out of Taiwan, and I have enough confidence in that island's manufacturing industry to trust them. The only thing I can do right now is to do a manual twist test, and they passed coz they didn't break or crack.

Will I be right? Who knows. I will report back at some stage in the future either to laugh at all the chumps spending a small fortune, or cry about my beat-up body.

Someone explained it here before I posted...R&D.

Some companies with public names that can actually be held accountable for their products have a stake in making sure
that their products are as safe as possible while no-name factories that can shut down and set-up shop if their product(s)
kills someone don't. Some companies actually take the time and spend the money in making sure that they produce safe
products. Others just focus as hard as they can on copying someone else and putting out the product as cheap as possible.

I'm sure this is a problem for all industries that suffer from counterfeiting.

And that's the problem with the counterfeiters...they are no-name companies with no public exposure.
You just might never know exactly "how" they produce their products.
They have to cut corners somewhere in order to keep their prices low.
It's just business 101.

The thing is, while brand name "expensive" (again, a relative word) bars have failed (as any product can),
to buy and use counterfeit products without knowing how their made is equivalent to playing Russian Roulette IMO.

And...it's a pretty good analogy. Just think, no one has actually answered it yet. I never saw someone pick something
riskier when they can pick something that has a proven record in situations where they can afford to have either.
It's really about numbers. A no-name generic company can possibly produce a great product while a well-known
maker can produce garbage, but that takes time to know; Time I save by just going with a company that has a
good record already.

;)

[For the record, I would actually choose the vehicle with a history of safety and reliability over the maker
that had a poor record of safety & reliability for my children and for myself even though that's no guarantee
that the particular product I use will not fail.]

Can any "cheap" handlebar defender(s) here put forth the names of the companies that produce these
bars so that we can all look into how their made and see what goes into the production of their bars?
http://www.chinaprintingnet.com/carb...andlebar-sale/

I've had more than a few alloy bars fail over the years. I've had one carbon bar start to show signs and I replaced it before failure. It could be argued that my experience with alloy failures was the reason I avoided the carbon failure.

I've broken both wrists, on seperate occassions, and had my carpal tunnels drained. I have the scars to prove it. I use carbon to help reduce numbness that I can experience on longer riders. Alloy just isn't as comfortable.

Other than that (all bars had been crashed hard) I've ridden on carbon bars every year for the last 12 or so. All without issue. BUT, I do replace my bars every season regardless of material so this may also be a reason why I've only ever experienced failure on bars I've crashed hard (not "my bike fell over a Starbucks" crashes, racing crashes). Pretty much all of the Elite level racers I know race carbon as well.

The other qualifier is I've only used carbon products from brands/sponsors/factories I know and/or trust. I've never used any eBay carbon products nor will I ever so I can't personally speak to this.

That's the main qualifier for me. :)

Thanks for the responses 2ndGen and Bob.
How do we know the inexpensive (notice I'm not using the word cheap) no name handlebars aren't being manufactured by the same factories making them for the reputable companies?
Sort of like Giant does for all the lesser bike companies, I won't bother mentioning names :)

This conversation could go on forever.

Probably the easiest way to look at it is this; Any company that brands an item, has offices you can contact and a presence in the industry has a vested interest in not having their products fail. Now, they may not be manufactureres and may be sourcing stuff from suppliers who do NOT have this same concern, but with a brand there is an avenue of recourse if there are problems and clear liability.

That's pretty much the only guarantee you can get.

As I've said before just because it is made in the same factory doesn't mean they use the same materials for everything made there or that they manufacture everything to the same tolerences. Those perameters are set by the customer (brand).

Also, the factory isn't responsible for any design flaws (although they will have some input in terms of manufacturing and a good factory will catch some stuff).

So, in short, I'd do a bit of googling to see if any brands have a reputation for failures. If so, I'd stay clear. I'd also avoid unbranded goods from unknown sources unless there is a level of trust with the seller as there are plenty of quality unbranded goods out there. Most of those are just unbranded items produced from open molds (molds any customer can buy from). BF is full of examples of these.

BTW, the same basic rules of thumb apply to products made from alloys as well. I mean it's not like an alloy crank arm or Ti pedal spindle have never failed.