How flexy are your carbon road bars?

Definitely not a cm. Even on the ends of the whisky Winston’s they might give 3-5mm. They’re the widest I have. 3t drops don’t move more than a mm. Zipp 80s the same. Bontrager carbons 2-3mm

I barely noticed any flex in my 44cm Lauf Smoothies which are supposed to be especially "forgiving".

Just be careful with Brand-X stuff, my Brand-X carbon seatpost was very forgiving but also the only seatpost I've ever had fail on me 🙄

There is a bit of flex on my "38cm" Prime Primavera carbon bars fitted to my Cube Attain GTC in summer '20, I think the marketing blurb claimed the newer version was stronger, but I never panicked as my rubbish sprint was unlikely to trouble them.
The bit of flex made rides much more comfy on my hands, so much so I never bothered adding tape and I use thin PlanetX "TT" mitts most of the time.

giant Pslr bars. about 0.5 cm flex. just about right. any more would be disconcerting. Build qualify of Giant will be first rate too.

I was always under the impression that carbon bars of any type were as stiff or as compliant as they were designed (and layed up) to be - like OnOne's stiff or chewy Knuckleball bars.

I'd expect carbon road bars to be fairly stiff but I guess that there's variation. I wouldn't necessarily equate flex with weakness either.

I've not ridden carbon bars before but but have a set of Easton EC70 AX gravel bars for my first ever gravel build. I'm hoping that they have some compliance and comfort benefit over stiff aluminium ones.

-- Edit --

They're still a fair bit more, but if the Brand Xs are making you nervous, Wiggle still has some silly deals on higher end carbon road bars.

3T Superergo LTD Road Handlebar (31.8mm) | Wiggle

Fizik Cyrano R1 Carbon Road Handlebar (31.8mm) | Wiggle

Fizik Cyrano 00 Carbon Road Handlebar (31.8mm) | Wiggle

I mean there were enough off-putting reviews on Wiggle about them……

I got a set of Ribble Level ones in a PSA earlier in the year and haven't ever noticed any flex.

I found one guy who said they'd snapped, but you never know if he'd just wound up the torque too much.

I did try to snap them and bounced up and down pretty hard on them, as hard as you'd expect to ever encounter on a road bike outside a crash, and they didn't break obviously.

giant Pslr bars. about 0.5 cm flex. just about right.

Under what conditions?

Aside from the fear of failure, these are so flexy that alone might actually cause me to take them back off.

I had some cheap Chinese bars with internal routing cutouts and a flat aero top section. The flex was alarming (felt like 15mm+) and I got shot of them after a couple rides and replaced with alu zipp bars which are much more reassuring! I have some Ribble carbon bars to put on at some point but can't be bothered doing all the cables again.

my 40cm ultralight Primavera don't flex at all that I can see.

Suspect bars from a business that has gone bust that cost a tenner. Bin em.

Any original purchaser of bars from chiggle  that subsequently failed would reasonably be able to make a sizeable claim for their  loss and/or injury.   You would expect them to be aware of his potential liability when selling them?

Suspect bars from a business that has gone bust that cost a tenner. Bin em.

Did it go bust because they sold dodgy gear? Or because their parent company was mismanaged?

Hmm, every review seems to give the weight as 228g or similar. These things are hard to weigh but to my best effort they came to 190g on my kitchen scales...

Road.cc review mentions how much they flex.

https://road.cc/content/review/162929-brand-x-carbon-ergo-racing-road-bar

I've got Ritchey Streem Carbon WCS on my roadie and there's no flex in them, very comfortable though. I like the shape so much I also run Streem III alloy on my CX bikes, again very comfortable bars.

Yeah I'm not exactly sure those bars in the review are the same as mine...

Thomson bars here. Stiff as you like.

@molgrips I bought a cheap set same as you, haven't fitted them yet.  I used the wiggle description as a google search and that is what came up, hotlines are also showing them as in stock.

Granted the review might be for an earlier version

Well I fitted them and went for a ride. On the bike, the flex is nowhere near as alarming, more like 5mm total bounce when I bounce on the bars and some of that is tyre and fork.
They feel perfectly fine when riding, even climbing out of the saddle. And yes they are very comfy.
I don't like the shape as much as my previous bars though, so that's something to work on. There's a flat bit on the top but since they're not actually aero (not that that makes a difference) the flat part doesn't need to be level and actually is more comfy angled back towards you unlike the flat top of an aero bar.

@jonnyboi the picture on hotlines looks like mine, the review does not - looks like an earlier version. No wonder they didn't sell when people thought they weighed 280g.

how is the flex being measured? if you push down on one end and up on the other you'll get a load of flex out of the noodly road stem as well.

Before I fitted them I could grab the ends of the drops and twist them an alarming amount. As you say, when fitted if you pull up on one side and push down on the other a large part of the movement is rotational flex in the stem.

But when stood over the top tube and pushing down on both drops it's not too bad, and pushing on both hoods doesn't move that much at all.

I’d say my 3t a have a little give in the drops which seems pleasant in use.

TBH I always liked the bling of carbon drops but think they are probably more fear inducing  than performance enhancing.  The fear of over tightening  clamps and the dilemma of whether to bin them the day the bike falls over on them,scoring due to clamps etc 🙂

Road.cc review mentions how much they flex.

That's not the same bar.  I got these when they were initially reduced to 24.99 mainly for the comfort aspect.  I'm looking forward to getting them on the bike and seeing that they are like.  The road bike is mid winter rebuild though at a very leisurely rate, so it'll be a while yet!