Hey everyone, today while riding, I noticed a dent near the Tt clip on mounting bracket. After checking old photos, it turns out I've had it for a few months and have already ridden for about 600 km. It's clearly visible, but I'm wondering if it's the carbon fiber or some coating. Let me know if it's a red flag and a throw to trash handlebar.
Ps: I tighten all fasteners according to the manufacturer's recommendations using a torque wrench.
Edit: Thanks guys for help. I’ll get alu handlebar and forget about this problem. Hope I didn’t run out of luck with this one.
by Single_Border9754
7 Comments
Yep. I would not ride that.
When you say you tighten things to the manufacturers spec. Are you talking about the aero bar manufacturer? Or the handlebar? Some carbon handlebars have a very small reinforced clamping section, designed for stem clamping. And won’t be reinforced for aero bars.
I would replace those bars ASAP. If there’s any components I would be super cautious with it is bars, stem, cranks and seatpost.
Just not worth the risk IMO.
That’s “stop riding immediately” damage. Usually, carbon fails suddenly and catastrophically. Bar failures almost always cause crashes. Consider yourself extremely lucky. As for myself, I prefer high quality alloy bars, and it’s not because I must have the lower price. Rather, in my experience, the advantages of carbon bars don’t outweigh their associated risks, they are less flexible from a “clamp accessories to them (e.g., aero bars) perspective, and regardless the performance gap between alloy and carbon isn’t that significant. It’s a bonus that alloy costs less.
I would ask the manufacturer.
People here think carbon fiber is like paper or something.
I just removed my Enve aero bars from my Enve handlebars and found the the clamping force from the aeros had destroyed the handlebars. I’ve been riding that setup for almost 15 years and was a little shaken to find that I had been riding the “dentist’s full employment act” for much of that time.
Many lightweight handlebars are designed by dummies, or people who think they’re smarter than they are.
When I was a composites engineer at a major high end components manufacturer, I’d often have to dissect broken bars from customers only to discover they were made perfectly and our VERY expensive European designers had hyper-optimized for only a very specific load case and not considered many normal loads like just leaning hard on the bars off your saddle lol.
Aero bars would have crushed the bars I worked on like twigs. Mind you, these were absolute top of the line, olympic/tour de france champion caliber handlebars made from the most expensive fibers by the best factories.
All the engineers ride aluminum bars and round tube frames 👍
r/bustedcarbon