Philadelphia Mountain Biking Association - Forums

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25716979@N06/2535433369/

I nice shard went into my arm and bruised elbow. Slowed me up a bit at Granogue race two days later.

I got  "the weight-weenie riot-act" read to me by the usual suspects on this board about the properties of carbon.

I have NEVER had a problem with Easton in 8-10 years, and this was my second Answer to fail (first, small hair-line crack at stem mount) , so when it gets warrantied (hopefully), I will sell it on ebay and get an Easton.

I could have been sooo mush worse falling onto that bike.

Now I am ready for the lectures....

No lecture

I will say my .02

The weight savings of carbon is not worth the chance you take that it could break on you. That's all I'm sayin.

Aluminum bends. Carbon breaks. End of story... I would never trust my handlebars if they were carbon. I had the same pair of Answer bars and a chunk got taken out of them in a crash and I threw them in the garbage. Carbon is cool for other parts but not a crucial part like handlebars. At least for the type of riding I do... You're lucky you didn't knock your teeth out on your stem. Live and learn...

In all fairness, alum can bend in an over load situation....but a lot of times, things like alum bars will fail suddenly from fatigue, with zero warning.   And Alum has rather shitty fatigue properties.   Carbon has awesome fatigue properties, but is easy to damage which can lead to failure.

What does it mean?  Ride steel!   :D

Aluminum generally is not flexible. Like a paper clip bending back and forth over time it will break. Scandium is some high grade aluminum that has more flexibility, but that breaks too!

I had some aluminum bars that snapped in a crash, but I guess that's not out of the ordinary. My favorite bars are carbon with an aluminum lining, which psychologically makes me think they are stronger. They still flex like carbon though, which I like.

Talking to Karl about carbon in general he says he's spoken to some manufacturers and they are completely confident in the material. It's still developing and were seeing a lot more of it has the development process matures; even carbon DH bikes. In some applications it not only saves weight but offers many times the strength of steel.

But for the time being maybe this is the answer? http://www.cambriabike.com/shopexd.asp?ID=11109

To be more specific, there are so many types of Aluminum out there that it is not prudent to talk about Aluminum in general so my comments were off. Aluminum is definitely a stiff metal, but I have bent a few pairs of Aluminum bars from crashing, and never had anything Aluminum fail me by breaking or snaping. But I guess you never know...

Jesse I wouldn't trust Titanium bars either, as Titanium can be brittle since it is so hard. My brother Paul had a VooDoo Titanium frame that snapped in half. THat was pretty shocking, but who knows if it was the metal or the frame design.

When you think about it, we are all guinea pigs and put a lot of trust in products on the market!!!!!

Ouch! Good thing you pulled out of it without much injury.

My .02 on carbon bars: I've had this pair (http://www.flickr.com/photos/repoman/2149837613/sizes/o/in/set-72157601255258810/) of Easton Monkey Lites on my Scalpel for over 8 years with no problem, and that bike was ridden hard while it was my primary and now has seen use while loaned to friends. That said, I think they're great cross-country/race bars but I wouldn't feel as comfortable with them on a longer travel bike that's going to get ridden harder.

I've never put out the $$ for carbon anything (I know, what kind of cyclist am I?) but I don't know if I would, especially for bars.  It's just a mental thing for me, I guess.  I know anything could fail, but for some reason the mental picture of carbon failing is somehow much worse than any metal.

I'm the other hand, there's always...

(http://www.fastboyfenders.com/images/new-bars.jpg)

 wood ???  :o

That sucks- I've seen a lot of those broken carbon bars at Wiss. Everyone says the same thing too "I was doing something stupid when it happend." One guy was at least smart enough to carry tie wraps to wrap a tree branch onto his to ride out. 

Well said Repo. I've actully got those same bars in 31.8 on my Racer X, and I raced on them for about 2 yrs with no problems. The aggressivenss of my riding however has progressed to a point where I don't even think I trust them on my XC rig anymore.

BTW I may be selling that bike soon! 25lb four inch travel rocket collecting dust in my garage. It deserves a good home.

Well it was on my XC Seven Hardtail. If I had a 6 or 7'' pogo stick like you guys, I would go with the new O/S alum stem and bars.

Control

When it comes to crashing on a bike there are two types of materials , Aluminum and non-aluminum,


....end of lecture.

How about that steel eh....   :o

(http://www.charlesuniatowski.com/bike/bars1-sm.jpg)
(http://www.charlesuniatowski.com/bike/bars3-sm.jpg)

FWIW, these were slightly damaged by the stem.....no injuries.

Ha! Chuck it was worth it to see you riding down "The Coyle" with only one half of a bar on your bike!!

 :D

stupid bikes, always breaking...

Damn count your blessings you didn't crash hard. (Coming from a guy who just had a major concussion)