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Would you buy carbon bars, that were 4 years old? Used in 2 reasons no dings or accidents e.t.c
not sure I'd buy used carbon bars at all, but then I'm not the trusting type
Depends on the price
I probably wouldn't buy carbon bars second hand but I've got two sets of carbon road bars - one set is >10 years old and no problems at all, the other set (on the CX bike) is about 5 years old and will shortly be taken off and put onto my new CX. Got no worries about keeping using them although my LBS did tell me that I'll die. While offering to sell me some new bars for about £240...
No. Carbon bars don't make much sense to me anyway, I wouldnt buy them new.
dont see why not
Carbon doesn't age so the fact they're carbon shouldn't affect your decision.
Most of mine are at least that.
Carbon doesn't age so the fact they're carbon shouldn't affect your decision
True, but it does decay, so you should take that into consideration.
Plus it has had 4 years to pick up micro-cracks or other damage which might not be immediately visible, all of which the seller may or may not know about... that would be my main worry.
If it were my 4 year old carbon bar I am absolutely certain has not been abused or crashed even in the most minor of spills then no worries... but there is a fair amount of trust put in the seller.
Question is, is the slight risk worth the slight savings? OP, what bars and how many pennies? Chances are there are new bars available for comparative prices which I'd be more inclined to go for.
I'd be more worried about old alloy bars dying from fatigue than I would carbon ones...
I'd buy them. Indeed I have bought them, and am still mainly alive.
chiefgrooveguru - MemberI'd be more worried about old alloy bars dying from fatigue than I would carbon ones...
what he said.
No. For a mere 50quid more buy new. YOU put 4yrs on them.
How many people here have actually snapped bars before?
robowns - Member
How many people here have actually snapped bars before?
This
The B/S just piles up.
I've bent and cracked an alu bar, and folded a steel one. Used carbon seems more reliable 😉
Just retired a monkeylite, if I believed the scaremongering I'd have retired it when it got the first big chip but that was about 3 years of constant kickings ago, now it's more chips and scratches than it is clean laquer. No bugger'll buy it but if it wasn't a little narrow and a little heavy I'd still be using it for years I'm sure.
I snapped a bar a few years ago and it was one of the scariest experiences I've had on a bike! I think I may have over-tightened it at some point, but the thing is, how do you know whether the previous owner had done this too? It could have had stress points put into the material that could at some point contribute to its failure! Sorry, but I'd only buy new bars, simply for piece of mind.
True, but it does decay, so you should take that into consideration.
Good point. I won't be buying any 5,730 year old bars.
Plus it has had 4 years to pick up micro-cracks or other damage which might not be immediately visible, all of which the seller may or may not know about... that would be my main worry.
Does this mean I need to replace the 4 year old Monkeylite XCs on my bike, because they may or may not be full of invisible micro-cracks? By the same rationale I should think about replacing my carbon frame as well...
There's a risk to buying anything secondhand - the fact that it's made from carbon is irrelevant.
The thing is though that your average CF component tends to be engineered for weight advantages and are generally less tolerant to abuse than say the average alu bar.
Most CF bars carry a stem tightening max torque of just 4-5Nm and a control torque of just 2Nm which unless you use a torque wrench or have magically calibrated hands is easy to over tighten for your average user. Alu bars by comparison are generally accepted to be "heavier" and made/ marketed for value and strength so are engineered to be more tolerant to ham fisted fitting/ crashing/ etc and not chase super light weight targets as a CF bar might be. It isn't just the material but the intended use of a CF vs Alu bar (of course there are some exceptions and I am generalising to a degree but you get the point).
At the end of the day would you really take the risk that the previous owner has never over torqued the stem bolts or controls or that the bars have never taken a spill? This could apply to bars of any material but given the generally lower max torques for the average CF bar it isn't unreasonable to suggest CF carries a slight increased risk on top of all of that.
And yes, I have damaged CF bars (Raceface and FSA) in fairly innocuous crashes and my GF bent an Easton EA70 in a crash so everything is possible in all materials 😀 I'd just rather know the history of the bar and the (ab)use it has been through by owning it for 4 years myself rather than go on the word of someone else. No reason a CF bar can't last for 10 years if looked after!
I've broken a few carbon bars in crashes, but never in a way which wasn't obvious (and I've never had any lack of confidence in a bar which had been crashed but not visibly damaged). In a similar way, damage due to overtorquing stem bolts will be very obvious. The idea of hidden damage on carbon parts is largely a myth (at least for the stuff we're talking about).
just examine them closely. Any obvious cracks, chips, crush marks around stem, control, grip clamp areas and walk away.