[Closed] AliExpress Carbon Bars - look good now that they've arrived....

Have you written your will?

[url= http://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/broke-my-chinese-carbon-bars-any-recommendations-for-a-replacement ]Good luck.[/url]

OK, i'm an idiot...i'm out 🙄

Handlebars are a thing with me, I'd rather ride a downhill course naked with razor blades on my saddle than use bars that are in anyway not to be trusted.
I've been injured badly when a set of bars that were past their best failed and still suffer from the injuries 13 years on. I hope its a joke, if its not please don't use crap bars for the sake of the NHS.

Think I've realised now. I'm a muppet for being sucked in by cheapo deals. Despite my banter, it didn't take long to convince me to put them in the garage or use as a decorative garden ornament.

Thanks STW

Mods might need to close this now before I lose any more face in the STW community 😳 muppet!

Yes. Good quality bars = being able to chew solid food = awesome 😀

Haha thanks Kayla

Ive had two sets of carbon road bars from aliexpress and on my aliexpress carbon frame without dying once. All the bits were brought from Flyxii and I have put the best part of 12000 miles on the frame and a 50/50 share of that on the bars. Whats the worst that can happen.?

Every time I see those 'get what you pay for' VW ads, I'm minded of STW.

Mods might need to close this now before I lose any more face in the STW community muppet!

Oh no, you don't get off that likely sunshine. This is the equivalent of getting caught smoking, and your punishment is having to smoke the whole packet.

Took 4 weeks to arrive so not terrible.

A month? And that's "not so terrible"?

A month? Seriously?

I'm not against cheap carbon bars having used a set of On One Knuckleballs as hard as could reasonably be expected and yet they always functioned perfectly (and I recently sold them giving a total cost of ownership of about £15) and I'm now on a set of RSP Ego DHs which seem decent.

They're all mostly made in similar places by similar factories, but at least with a UK supplier there's hopefully more consideration to quality and safety standards.

They're all mostly made in similar places by similar factories

It's statements like this that allows shit like the above to exist.

A huge face plant awaits!
40 quid more and you could have got a brand new set of Chromag Cutlass 750mm carbon bars and they arrive next day from Shorelines.
As a bonus they are stunning.

Officially going into hiding now....

Ok, look, the OP has acknowledged an error in judgement. Let's not keep adding to this thread to bump it up the page, eh?

No need to go into hiding for God's sake just by a set of decent bars

Ive had two sets of carbon road bars from aliexpress and on my aliexpress carbon frame without dying once.

You hit many jumps on that road bike?

...put them in the garage or use as a decorative garden ornament.

You could use them as both a rolling pin and cookie cutter to make tiny little biscuits. Said biscuits would be the perfect size to store inside your real bars when you go riding for a handy snack.

Just ignore the usual bs Chinese carbon scare story replies above, I have exactly the same bars and matching stem on my fat bike.
I have a £13 130g carbon bar on my other fatty and that has had lots of abuse over the last 6000 miles I have used it for.

I also have 200g integrated carbon stem/bar on my 29er and that has been perfect.

Its just the same as buying any product, just look after it and check it over every now and again.

What do you check for?

I had a set of £30 (3t aeronova like) carbor bars on my my road bike for 18 months with no issues at all.

Also just bought somee N'S Bikes carbon bars from crc - £120 rrp and you can feel the ridges and creases made in the carbon lay up internally

Most carbon products come from Asia - just look at the resent ENVE road bike fork story... having a fancy logo and a uk receipt just gives you some one to complain too when/if they snap...

A month? Seriously

Stuff coming halfway round the world for very little money takes a while shocker. Full story at 10.

I order loads of little electronic bits from AliBaba, takes a while, costs pence. Meh.

That said I wouldn't buy £13 bars. I put a £200 (real) Bontrager bar on my Deng Fu frame!

The thing with carbon though is is doesn't bend, it suddenly cracks catastrophically.. If it's layered up well it's far stronger than aluminium but doesn't weigh a lot less.

The danger I guess is when people spec up light carbon and expect it to be indestructible.. It's not not.

I'm running some lb rims.. They are great and light.. But before purchase I was thinking an XC spec 28 spoke build, several emails later after giving my weight and ride style they were fairly adamant I went with the tougher AM spec with 32 spokes, even though my riding is more cross country.. I don't do big jumps or anything crazy, but I'm quite tall and relatively heavy at 15/16 stone so I figured they were giving good advice.

I'm confident with my wheels now as I've bashed them about a fair bit, but i don't think I'd be tempted to buy blind a £13 carbon bar.. Wheels will tell you when they are failing, a bar if not layered up well will just snap suddenly resulting in a smashed up face and teeth knocked out.

Think about the forces applied.. Wheels dissipate force well due the the load spreading out through the rim and spokes.. Bars only have 3 pressure points.. 2 where you are holding them with your entire weight on the ends, and a single stress point in the middle at the stem.. A bad landing will put many times your body weight onto the bars.. Far more than you could ever simulate by kicking it or trying to break it over your knee.

Check out the santa cruz video on YouTube when they are testing carbon frames vs aluminium ones.. Carbon takes significantly more abuse but when it cracks, it's a pretty catastrophic failure.. But these are high end branded carbon parts that are constructed thicker..

Sorry to sound like a broken record but I wouldn't run a ten quid carbon bar from Ali express.. You just don't know if it's layered up thick enough.

I'm kind of a hypocrite as im running LB rims which I purchased direct.. But they seem to have a solid reputation and they do consult you during the purchase process for suitability/spec.. They won't do fake decals, they build them with genuine hope hubs If you choose to upgrade from the standard novatek, and they've recently announced they don't do bars or other carbon bits any more, just wheels, which is confidence inspireing I think.

Is it safe to come out yet and bake some handlebar sized cookies? 😛

In all seriousness some articulate points for/against and always appreciate the combined experience of STW

Appreciate all of the input

Chris

I'm tighter than the original Yorkshireman. I break into sweats at the thought of buying a round.

I bought a brand new set of Easton carbon 780mm Havens to replace my oldish Easton carbon Havocs ('just incase'/being careful).

**** me OP

Bump,literally 😯 😆

Not that I am condoning the use of a £13 set of Chinese bars (I wouldn't use them) just wanted to pick up on the comments that carbon doesn't bend, it snaps catostrophicly....that's simply not true. Boat masts all bend, in fact they can have Bend characteristics made into them. Same way as carbon bars can be built with some flex. Much like with alloy, once you go past the point of no return they will snap! The issue with the Chinese bars as I see it is the uncertainty of the wall thickness, the quantity and quality of epoxy used, not to mention what quality of carbon.... Oh and potential voids.

Indeed its the issue with qc

You could have a brilliant set of bars you could have a set of rejected there is no way to tell. Then again I do have second hand carbon bars [ 4 years old now in my use ] so really why am I preaching as I cannot tell you much about them either

Just ignore the usual bs Chinese carbon scare story replies above, I have exactly the same bars and matching stem on my fat bike.
I have a £13 130g carbon bar on my other fatty and that has had lots of abuse over the last 6000 miles I have used it for.

If China was a factory then maybe you would have a point, China is a country with lots of factories and very little transparency around whats going on in a lot of them. A reputable company will have QC, checks and process to make sure the product is consistent etc.
You have no idea what is going on with the stuff you find on Ali Express. If your lucky it's somebody running unbadged kit out to the same standard as the original and that they are doing it consistently. It could be getting run out on the weekend with less staff and whatever CF they have to hand, they could be using less material to do it real cheap they could be QC rejects (bad batch of CF/materials etc) cleaned up and sent off on a job lot.

CaptainFlashheart - Member

A month? And that's "not so terrible"?

A month? Seriously?

They say 25 days so yep, 4 weeks is definitely not so terrible. And it costs basically nothing, so yes- not terrible at all. Course, you could get your low cost stuff from aliexpress or taobao express couriered to you in days but then it'd not be cheap.

(I still wouldn't touch those bars. And that's not anti-cheap-carbon, there's inexpensive carbon that I do trust, but fakes and no-names don't enter that list)

I've been looking at new carbon bars of late. Three cheap but quality manufacture choices as I can see.

£58 from ebay from a STWer in Leek,Staffs. KTM is an Austrian company. [url= http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-KTM-PRIME-CARBON-RISER-BARS-760MM-WIDE-RRP-90-lighter-than-renthal-fatbar-/331768019470?hash=item4d3eea3a0e:g:vlUAAOSwpzdWr46W#ht_2134wt_1203 ]KTM Prime[/url]

£47.95 The [url= http://www.parkersofbolton.co.uk/products/raleigh-rsp-carbon-ego-dh-riser-bar-780mm-208g?CAWELAID=620001070002469161&CAGPSPN=pla&catargetid=620001070002475006&cadevice=c&gclid=CJvi1Oe1kMsCFesV0wodT1gJ-A ]Raleigh Carbon Ego[/url]

£54.99 the [url= http://shore-lines.co.uk/chromag,cutlass,carbon,handlebar ]chromag cutlass[/url]

I bought a set of those risers last year and when after 6 weeks they hadn't arrived, I got in touch to chase them. Loads of apologies and I ended up with two sets. My wife didn't want a set on her bike so I did some of my own testing on them. I whacked them very hard with a hammer. The hammer bounced off. I did it a good few times. The carbon scuffed a bit. The hammer bounced off. I put a stem on it and tightened it. A lot. One of the stem bolts snapped. The carbon crushed a little. It split a tiny bit at the clamp point. I went back to hammering it at the crushed/ split bit. The hammer bounced. After a while and a lot of "What ARE you doing?" questions, the crack began to spread a little. I got bored and binned them. I have 2 sets of 3T Aero copy bars on my road bikes. £30 each from Aliexpress. They've been on for over a year. Not one single issue.
If you don't want the bars, I'll give you what they cost you.
Typical "I read it on the Internet so I'll say it's true" nonsense being spouted.

oooh they sell some good stuff on their site, particularly tempted by the ec90 stem copies http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/New-Arrivals-3K-Matte-Road-Bike-Stem-Carbon-Fiber-MTB-Short-Stem-31-8-80-100MM/618808_32346849585.html if only they were 0°

i'm a supporter of chinese stuff, undecided about bars, as they tend to fail catastrophically, unlike a stem which is a fairly big lump of carbon

"tend to fail catastrophically"

I keep reading this but I've yet to see an explanation of what it means or see evidence of it.

There's a photo linked in this thread (in this instance about £13 bars...). Carbon bars tend to just go bang and break in half.

It doesn't matter if you've paid £100 for an Easton logo, the likely failure mechanism is a loud crunch and a wobbly front end. Aluminium ones [i]might[/i] bend. Almost certainly won't though. Moot point.

Right.

[img] [/img]

[url] http://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/dodged-a-bullet-today-snapped-carbon [/url]
In this case, a set of Easton bars. Whammed against a tree, apparently.
I whammed my £13 chinese copies with a hammer, lots. Nothing went went bang and broke in half. I suppose it's pot luck then.
Offer still stands to the OP. I'll give you what you paid for the bars and I'm looking forward to riding home on one of my bikes fitted with the £30 3T chinese copies.

As an advocate of Chinese carbon I do agree that the inconsistency and the unknown is the issue. They may not be any weaker than Easton, but you don't know.

I wouldn't buy fakes. I would buy from one of the known Chinese brands.

Monksie I know what you are saying and I agree but (for me) its about confidence (and consistency in the manufacture and testing )in a product. Some people are fine- others affected by, well fear. I'd love a set of decent (cheap) carbon road 44cm bars as well 🙁

A good idea (like yours) would be to order two at the sametime and test one to destruction- that'd help alot on the confidence side and they are more than likely going to be from the same batch.

paid £100 for an Easton logo

Maybe I'm a sucker but I don't think carbon bars from China are necessarily all the same. Even if they are made in the exact same factory, and maybe even by the exact same people, as Easton** ones.

Critical parts that need replacing very rarely aren't worth skimping on IME.

*Nothing's indestructible in the wrong circumstances, obvs
**Other brands are available.

others affected by, well fear

This is me, I spent a long time deliberating over a chinese carbon frame, ended up spending a couple of hundred more on an alloy scott frame just for piece of mind.

Handlebars are the one thing I really wouldn't risk. For pretty much all other components, if they crack when you are riding there's a chance you can salvage it and not end up in a world of pain; with handlebars, if they snap you've no chance and there is a good chance your jugular is going very near fractured carbon/alloy!

Tell us about when you find the finger of an enslaved kid inside the bars

I've been impressed by Superstar's carbon bar...
http://unduro.co.uk/mtb/review-superstar-lithium-handlebar/

They claim each one is tested at the factory.

chakaping - Member
I've been impressed by Superstar's carbon bar...
http://unduro.co.uk/mtb/review-superstar-lithium-handlebar/
They claim each one is tested at the factory.

In that article they claim they're load tested to 200kg which is 'far in excess' of what they'll be expected to cope with. My question is, as a 100kg plus guy, is it not unreasonable to suggest that a big crash would generate forces of over 2g? Therefore the load on the bar would be in excess of that 200kg? Or have I got the physics completely wrong? This does of course mean all my weight going through the bar but if I hit a tree or rock square on and stopped dead it doesn't seem implausible.

Good question and I can't pretend to have any insight into how many Gs we're likely to be pulling in normal riding or in a crash.

If you have a big crash it's not so bad for the bar to break of course. It's when you're landing a drop or pinning it down a rocky trail that it would be more dangerous.

If you read the article you'll see the 200kg load is repeated 100 times and a data logger looks for a change in response. Bars that show a consistent response are deemed ok. Seems like a fair non destructive test to me.

Your bike has 5 points of contact, your weight is distributed amongst them. 200kg is applied alternately to either end of the bar in an oscillatory fashion during testing. Unless you're a gymnast performing a single handstand on one side of the bar during a crash, I wouldn't worry.

monksie - Member
"tend to fail catastrophically"

I keep reading this but I've yet to see an explanation of what it means or see evidence of it.

It means carbon doesn't really fatigue so you don't get a gradual degradation of strength. It's just there until you overload it to failure, then it's suddenly completely gone. As in fractured, zero strength.

FWIW I've discovered that you can scratch, scuff, chip and grind carbon bars across rocks and they won't fail. It's not as fragile as some people think.

chakaping - Member
FWIW I've discovered that you can scratch, scuff, chip and grind carbon bars across rocks and they won't fail. It's not as fragile as some people think.

You can chip and scrape the ends as much as you like and be fine, do it right at the root next to the clamp and let's see - maybe it'll be fine. Do you feel lucky?

The trouble with cheap carbon stuff is that its performance is entirely dependent on the manufacturing standards and consistency from one batch to the next. So your cheap bars might pass the 'bend over the knee' test, but how will it fare in a crash? On a rocky downhill? On a jump? Rigorous destructive testing will reveal the answers but having confidence that the next one off the production line will have the same properties requires stringent QA processes.

Is the material batch up to snuff? Has it been laid up by trained personnel? In the correct clean environment? Has it had sufficient consolidation? Have the ply orientations been designed carefully and realised accurately and consistently? Has it undergone the correct cure cycle? And so on. The reputable big brands will be able to say yes to all of those, and probably have a papertrail to prove it.

A cheap no name (or knockoff) Aliexpress item laid up in a backstreet shed by whoever they could drag off the street that day, not so much.