Let's see your homemade bars. I'm thinking of making some myself but out of a different material. Say copper tubing?

What else have you guys seen used?

I would think copper would bend too easily. Also, copper tubing is very expensive, plus the tools to bend tubing without kinking it are also expensive. I would just buy a set of cheap bars and cut them if you wanted to modify them yourself.

No seriously though, I think there are $20 versions of pretty much any bar you might want. If copper tubing was an appropriate and safe handlebar material, it would be used to make handlebars more often. Handlebars aren't the kind of thing that you want to just "try and see if it works", it could bend/break/shear at the wrong time and seriously ruin your day, face, or life.

Point well taken. That's why I posted this before I altered the look of my face.

But, I would think that thick walled copper tubing might work, thats a big might.

Copper is a pretty soft metal in general. It probably could work, but it's a risk I wouldn't be willing to take.

It would have to be at least .125" wall to be even close to as stiff as aluminum or steel. At that thickness it's difficult to bend without work hardening it and assuming you have a hydraulic mandrel bender and the right torches/quenching medium to bend it without drastically affecting the metal, it would be so heavy and expensive it really doesn't make any sense.

But, if you want copper bars, go for it.

I have access to all of that.

most of the strength in tubing comes from its outer diameter, not how thick the walls are.
copper is very soft, aluminum alloy is not.

This thread is approved and supported by dentists everywhere.

Seriously, if you make a set of copper bars some tweaker is just going to steal them to recycle.

Yea, between weight and sturdyness, that might be a deal killer.

So, what other materials might one use to make a set of different looking yet reliable bars?

With two tubes of comparable diameter, the tube with the greater wall thickness would be stronger, right? The bar diameter is constant, so to increase strength he'd have to increase wall thickness.

@drummerboy, if you have that kind of a equipment, I would get some nice stainless steel tubing and go nuts.

Ooh, stainless....... yummay. You just opened up a whole new world of possibilites.

The hardness / softness of the material is not the relevant issue. It's the yield / ultimate tensile strength that matters. Also, the modulus of elasticity affects the flexibility of the bars. Copper tubing could be used, but it would have to be oversized and would be very heavy. Then, you would have to shim it somehow to fit available stem clamp sizes. Copper is a great material for sculptures, but pretty lousy for load-carrying structures.

as far as I'm aware, the only thing that changes with wall thickness is how easily the tubing will buckle. A rod will bend, but tubing will fold on itself.

Incorrect. The strength and stiffness of a round thin-walled tube is linearly proportional to its thickness. Double the thickness and you double the strength and stiffness. What is true is that increasing the diameter has a more dramatic impact. The strength increases as the square of the diameter and the stiffness increases as the cube of the diameter. Hence the dramatic increase in frame stiffness with oversized tubing.

ahhh, interesting.
I've always searched for wall thickness vs. diameter, but I could never find such info on the interwebs. google has failed me.

Yes Texastrackie, making it fit a stem is going to be my biggest challange. Maybe there's a way of making it beigger in the middled then knureling it? Or maybe shims would be easiest.

TT speaks the truth. It's elementary physics.

I've got a very nice homemade bar.. but it's only stocked with rum and vodka at the moment! Drum roll please.

31.8mm is aprx. 1.25 inches
25.4mm = 1 inch

take it for what it is worth. I don't know if you can make a tapered bar, but you can try for 1" and shim to 26mm or 31.8mm

Not sure if these are homemade or not, but...

Invite please!

Made these about 3 years ago. Still riding them.

If you want copper you'll have to plate something stronger. And it will turn green either way unless you clear coat it.