[Closed] Would you use these bars?

Were they the "chewy" flavour? If so, they might flex more without damaging the carbon fibres.

Personally, no. For one thing, I'd find it too hard to avoid it preying on my mind when riding, as the consequences of it snapping during a descent are unlikely to be trivial.

They were the, erm, not chewy. Crunchy? The stiffer ones.

To be honest I'm thinking much the same thing. There's enough risk in mountain biking without potentially dodgy bars.

I replaced them with some alloy Renthals but to be honest I much preferred the Knuckleballs, the Renthals are just too stiff.

Right, time to browse for new carbon bars!

Yes. If I changed my bars every time I hit the ground/tree/mountain, Id have run out of money and the world run out of bars years ago.

I've had carbon bars since about the very early 90's. Never broken them and I've hit things very hard lots of times. For one example, hard enough to bend the steerer tube on the forks. Another time I pulled three spokes out of the wheel. Bars were fine.

If your concerned try breaking some and you will struggle. If they are from a good reputable brand they will be very over engineered.

Yeah I’d probably use them if they’ve been visually inspected and no obvious damage found.
Think about how many pairs of carbon bars/frames/forks/seatposts are in use.
There really aren’t many failures.
When roman grosjean crashed his F1 car last month the carbon halo actually pierced the armco barrier.
It’s amazing stuff.
A thorough visual inspection, make sure there’s nothing frayed etc.

I'd keep using them

When roman grosjean crashed his F1 car last month the carbon halo actually pierced the armco barrier.
It’s amazing stuff.

The halo is titanium.

Not to say that carbon bars aren’t strong or that carbon fibre is fragile (F1 cars have had carbon tubs for 40 years) but even if the halo was carbon it’s not really comparable.

As for using carbon bars, if they’re properly manufactured I’d expect them to be more resilient than aluminium ones and quite capable of digging up some dirt, but if it’s psychologically niggling (even if just paranoia) and you can’t rationalise that thought, and new ones will make it go away, then you kind of have to go with new ones, whatever the material.

‘The halo is titanium’
Didn’t realise that

I'd be retiring them and fit aluminium bars, IMO, carbon isn't the right material for handlebars, easily compromised by over tightening or damaged from knocks.

I might stick them on the hardtail for some local pootles and see how they feel. There's no sign of damage externally at all, and as far as I can see on the inside but there's always that niggling doubt.

Might try some Spank Vibrocore next. Best of both worlds?

Sell em on ebay 😀

You can buy a USB borescope off eBay for a few quid that you could do an internal inspection with.

I erred on the side of caution with a set of drop bars that suffered a heavy landing in a CX race. Tried to break them before putting in the bin so someone couldn't rescue them for reuse. Couldn't even bend them, never mind snap them should have just kept them.

You can buy a USB borescope off eBay for a few quid that you could do an internal inspection with.

How would that help? Oh, you mean the BARS!

Carbon tend to dissipate forces through the fibres, hence why it's used for a lot of things that have forces applied to them, they're also pretty simple to see if they are damaged, as you need to break the fibres in the weave, the resin is there to bind, the lacquer to coat, if any of the fibres are damaged then it's repair or bin, most usually bin for small items.

If you are worried, take them off, inspect them, give them a sound test (if it's damaged it won't resonate the same throughout) and either fit them back on or replace.

For me though, i have CFRP bars on my trail/xc hardtail, but on the bikes i do enduro/jumps/etc, i use aluminium, not because i fear CFRP (i've worked with a lot of it!), but because i know a bad landing like you had can cause a catastrophic failure more than on aluminium, CFRB does not like sharp impacts!

CFRP = Carbon Fibre Reinforced.....?
Is CFRB different or a typo. Would be handy to at least reference acronyms once.

I know Carbon Fibre stuff tends to fracture rather than bend, but does it suffer from fatigue? If it's not actually broken, (realise this might be hard to see on fully enclosed areas) it's OK to carry on using?

carbon fibre has a much better fatigue rate, hence why it's used a lot on aircraft due to cycles of force being applied thousands of times.

CFRB was a typo, CFRP is just to stop typing carbon fibre, P is polymer, as in the binder.

The 'proper' answer is no, you can't really see what damage may have been done to them.
The 'real world' answer is yes, as someone said above, if you replaced every time you had an off you would constantly be buying new bars.
I had a pretty big crash at Finale, dug a set of brand new Mt Zoom carbon bars into the ground, with a bar end. I hit the deck hard, lost a fair of skin, the bars took the brunt of the impact, don't know whether the bar ends cushioned it slightly or added to the twisting forces...
Once I was no longer winded and had picked myself up I did the next 20-odd hours without even thinking about it (well, the bars, my knee was very aware of the accident for a while) I did consider the OP's question after the race but decided not to replace, that was June 2017. I still have them (on a race bike, so infrequent, but not gentle, use). They are fine.