Wtf is all that white crap? If you don't unwrap your bars at least once every year to change the tape and you allow your bars to corrode you are asking for it.

Yikes, thats looks like some serious corrosion there. Did that weaken the aluminum?

you can kill aluminum with mercury or ammonia.
I'm guessing that's the ammonia method...

but think of how much it would have stunk....

Very much so! As stated above, inspect and re-wrap those bars at least once a season.

it is corrossion. Combination of sweat on the trainer, and living in a coastal environment.

Bars are 5 years old. It's been a year, and a couple thousand miles since I retaped the bars. ( most of my miles these days are on the tandem).

I knew I needed to retape the bars and check them. It was on this week's to do list. I did givem them a hard yank before saturday's race and didn't feel any weakness or creaking.

Crashed in the race, and the handlebar cracked. My bet is the force of the crash might have bent the bars a tad anyway, but not cracked them without the corrossion.

My point is that Al bars will corrode and fail; you do need to check them, and whatever material you choose, they all can fail.

and anyone who's been riding the trainer all winter would be well advised to retape their bars before spring.

I love my crabon bars.


They have yet to asplode.

Hope you're OK! Everything can crack and fail....just don't like hearing about that happening to people.

Thanks. I'm ok. Hyperextended my neck. Strain sprain type injury;nothing permanent.

The cracked handlebars were the effect, not the cause of the crash. Although it's clear they wer just waiting for the right stress to fail.

Glad you're ok. Glad you passed this along to people.

yikes - glad you're OK buddy.

that's really a ton of corrosion. what's your plan moving forward, unwrap and retape twice a year?

i've heard of people giving their bars a laquer clearcoat to prevent this type of thing, maybe not a bad idea for you?

Ouch! Thanks for the PSA.

Yay for Carbon bars not corroding under me while I am on the trainer.

Makes me wonder if we should save Aluminum bars for outside and use carbon bars on our trainers.

"HAHA my trainer set-up is lighter then yours!"

just use the left side.

Wow. That is unreal, thanks for the info.

The bar cracked after being corroded and then crashed on? It's not the bar that failed.

wut?

What failed then?

I think he's suggesting maybe that maintenance failed.

The user.

Have seen AL handlebars fail right in the middle.

I'm going to go ahead and say you missed the point of this thread...

I'm gonna go ahead and say you are wrong. I check my gear as everyone should. Checking won't prevent things from breaking when you crash. I just don't consider that a failure. Racing bikes aren't designed to be crashed. The thread title says 'fail' and the original post doesn't mention a crash or even explain the corrosion.

I have bent my Al bars in a crash, but they didn't crack.

Holy crapshaits. Do you live right on the water? That's nuts. I rewrap my bars every...never...and I don't think I've ever had nearly that much corrosion.

I do think that "fail" is not the right term. That's like saying my truck "failed" when I had driven it through 10 midwest winters without any undercoating and then the frame cracked when I got t-boned by another driver.

Back 'in the day', most bars had a ferrule in the middle and we broke a lot of them, like Cinelli and such, usually after crashing.