When to replace bars?

"Nate" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I have 10K miles on my ITM Super Europa bars. They seem ok. When should I replace them? Other than
weight, how would I know which bars are stronger than others?

According to some, bars take a downward set (droop) before they're likely to fail. Last time I taped
mine, I saw lots of corrosion & pretty deep pitting. I decided to replace them. I was rewrapping
because I cracked a stem.

In article flxXa.44904$cF.16237@rwcrnsc53 said:

"Nate" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I have 10K miles on my ITM Super Europa bars. They seem ok. When should I replace them? Other
than weight, how would I know which bars are stronger than others?

10K miles seems pretty short, but I don't know those bars.

Quoted message said:

According to some, bars take a downward set (droop) before they're likely to fail. Last time I
taped mine, I saw lots of corrosion & pretty deep pitting. I decided to replace them. I was
rewrapping because I cracked a stem.

The handlebar that failed on me gave absolutely no sign before the right side suddenly collapsed. It
wasn't easy but managed to pedal it home, using the left (uncollapsed) side, holding the right side
up to keep it out of the front wheel.

A stem failure is a lot scarier. Has anyone had a stem fail? Other than as a result of some crash or
othe extreme event?

-frank
--

Nate said:

I have 10K miles on my ITM Super Europa bars. They seem ok. When should I replace them?

Uhh...I wasn't aware that handlebars were a maintenance replacement item. I thought they were like
the frame -- replace when you want to, or never, as you please.

Quoted message said:

Other than weight, how would I know which bars are stronger than others?

Maybe www.roadbikereview.com could help.

Quoted message said:

Joe

--
Rick Onanian

Rick Onanian said:

Quoted message said:

I have 10K miles on my ITM Super Europa bars. They seem ok. When should I replace them?

Uhh...I wasn't aware that handlebars were a maintenance replacement item. I thought they were like
the frame -- replace when you want to, or never, as you please.

Rick's advice, usually pretty good, has missed the point here. Every part of a bicycle will wear out
or break, given enough use.

I have never had a frame break, except due to serious abuse. But my highest-mileage bike, at 22
years and maybe 40,000 miles, had had new stems, bars, cables, tires, chains, rims, hubs, spokes,
derailleurs. . .you get the idea.

--
Ted Bennett Portland OR

"Rick Onanian" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

On Mon, 04 Aug 2003 16:31:48 GMT, Nate <[email hidden]> wrote:

Quoted message said:

Uhh...I wasn't aware that handlebars were a maintenance replacement item. I thought they were like
the frame -- replace when you want to, or never, as you please.

Unwise. Sturdy aluminum bars should probably be replaced, oh, maybe every several thousand hours of
riding (I'm really ballparking it -- I'd guess 2 to 10K hours) and very lightweight bas much more
often, (perhaps every thousand hours).

And certainly if the bar droops at all or is deeply guaged.

JT

--
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Visit jt10000.comjt10000.comOpen ↗
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Ted Bennett said:

Rick Onanian said:

Quoted message said:

I have 10K miles on my ITM Super Europa bars. They seem ok. When should I replace them?

Uhh...I wasn't aware that handlebars were a maintenance replacement item. I thought they were
like the frame -- replace when you want to, or never, as you please.

Rick's advice, usually pretty good, has missed the point here. Every part of a bicycle will wear
out or break, given enough use.

I have never had a frame break, except due to serious abuse. But my highest-mileage bike, at 22
years and maybe 40,000 miles, had had new stems, bars, cables, tires, chains, rims, hubs, spokes,
derailleurs. . .you get the idea.

I've had two bars break while riding, a rather unnerving experience at speed. Both times the bike
had been recently crashed without the bars showing any obvious faults. I am a slow learner. I now
replace bars after a crash.

If they show no sign of fatigue, I don't see why youl'd have to. Unless you want to to upgrade or
something. Handlebars really never wear out, do they?

May you have the wind at your back. And a really low gear for the hills! Chris

Chris'Z Corner "The Website for the Common Bicyclist": geocities.comczcornerOpen ↗

(Frank Miles) may have said:

A stem failure is a lot scarier. Has anyone had a stem fail? Other than as a result of some crash
or othe extreme event?

Not a failure per se, but I discovered that an acquaintance had run the stem up well past the min
insertion mark once. It became obvious when I yanked the whole thing out of the steer tube on a hard
accel where I was adding the arm strength to the thrust. That was an interesting experience that I
won't soon forget. I relearned my no-hands technique *very rapidly*, and was incredibly glad that it
happened on smooth, flat and level pavement with adequate runout space.

--
My email address is antispammed; pull WEEDS if replying via e-mail. Yes, I have a killfile. If I
don't respond to something, it's also possible that I'm busy.

After hitting on the proprietor's wife, of course!

86'd Bill

"Frank Miles" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

A stem failure is a lot scarier. Has anyone had a stem fail? Other than as

a

Quoted message said:

result of some crash or othe extreme event?

Yes, I did, in the post you quoted.

Since it was a quill stem (Nitto Technomic), the forging broke completely, but the stem was held
together with the binding bolt, as it broke on the vertical part. I think a threadless stem or a
quill breaking on the horizontal part would be much more dangerous.

I attribute mine breaking to the combination of long rise and the use of aerobars. I suppose my size
was also a factor (6'10", 235). I switched to a welded stem, hopefully that will be more durable.
Big people shouldn't shave grams.

Fatigue will not necessarily show any visible signs. I know more than one MTB rider that has had
bars snap with no warning.

Obviously MTB bars take a different amount of abuse than do road bars. MTB riders I know will
replace AL bars every 2 years during normal use. Titanium longer than that. Peronaly I have given up
on AL and gone to carbon fiber - essentially it doesn't ever fatigue [so I've been told and read].

One of the MTB rags did a study in conjunction with University of VA or Va Tech (can't remember
which) a while back. Essentially they weighted the ends of the bars and vibrated them until failure
to simulate fatigue. AL was all over the board from one design to the next and Ti about 3 or 4x
longer. Carbon never fatigued -- they gave up. Of course AL snaps, Ti bends, and CF just exploads
when it finaly goes in a big impact was the other thing they said.

Again, you mileage may vary and this doesn't have a clean translation to road bars but its a decent
data point.

Chris

[email hidden] (Chris Zacho "The Wheelman"😉 wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

If they show no sign of fatigue, I don't see why youl'd have to. Unless you want to to upgrade or
something. Handlebars really never wear out, do they?

May you have the wind at your back. And a really low gear for the hills! Chris

Chris'Z Corner "The Website for the Common Bicyclist": geocities.comczcornerOpen ↗

"Nate" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I have 10K miles on my ITM Super Europa bars. They seem ok. When should I replace them? Other than
weight, how would I know which bars are stronger than others?

Joe

I was always told to replace bars every 3-5 years, same as helmets.

Mike

Mike S. said:

I was always told to replace bars every 3-5 years, same as helmets.

Well, I don't believe in replacing helmets unless they suffer an impact (or I just feel like
a change).

As for handlebars, if anything the replacement interval should depend on mileage, rider's weight,
riding style, and of course, crashes.

As a user of old school Cinelli Model 64 handlebars, I'm not sure which of the modern bars I want to
use. There seems to be more emphasis on light weight than on durability. Any suggestions for a good
sturdy (but not ridiculous) bar?

Art Harris

John Forrest Tomlinson said:

Unwise. Sturdy aluminum bars should probably be replaced, oh, maybe every several thousand hours
of riding (I'm really ballparking it -- I'd guess 2 to 10K hours) and very lightweight bas much
more often, (perhaps every thousand hours).

10K hours at 15 mph is 150,000 miles! I've got about 25,000 miles on my old Cinelli 64's.

Art Harris

In article _yaYa.62935$zy.60381@fed1read06 said:

Re: helmet change interval. I'm repeating here: the reasoning behind changing every 3-5 years is
the UV radiation, fumes in the garage/basement, and generally being tossed about. All of these
degrade the EPS that helmets are made out of.

Let's face it, a $100 helmet isn't such a bad deal over 3-5 years. Assuming that don't replace it,
are you willing to live with the potential for the helmet to not protect your head properly when
you take a digger?

Except that there's not exactly tons of evidence that a brand new helmet will protect your head.
Helmet manufacturers use fear rather than facts to sell their product (not that this is unusual-
it's been a hugely sucessful strategy for the insurance industry, and CamelBak even jumped on the
bandwagon with its "Hydrate or Die" slogan- and thus we have middle aged people on upright
discomfort bikes with holy prostate-protective saddles under their butts, holy beer coolers on their
heads, elbow and knee pads, and 10 pounds of water on their backs to go for a 5 mile ride on the
bike trail they drove to in their SUVs).

"Tim McNamara" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

In article _yaYa.62935$zy.60381@fed1read06 said:

Re: helmet change interval. I'm repeating here: the reasoning behind changing every 3-5 years is
the UV radiation, fumes in the garage/basement, and generally being tossed about. All of these
degrade the EPS that helmets are made out of.

Let's face it, a $100 helmet isn't such a bad deal over 3-5 years. Assuming that don't replace
it, are you willing to live with the potential for the helmet to not protect your head properly
when you take a digger?

Except that there's not exactly tons of evidence that a brand new helmet will protect your head.
Helmet manufacturers use fear rather than facts to sell their product (not that this is unusual-
it's been a hugely sucessful strategy for the insurance industry, and CamelBak even jumped on the
bandwagon with its "Hydrate or Die" slogan- and thus we have middle aged people on upright
discomfort bikes with holy prostate-protective saddles under their butts, holy beer coolers on
their heads, elbow and knee pads, and 10 pounds of water on their backs to go for a 5 mile ride on
the bike trail they drove to in their SUVs).

After cracking a few helmets the hard way, why risk using one "too long"? Busting my noggin
on ashpalt at 30mph isn't a good time to finally prove whether the helmet companies had a
good argument.

I do know that polystyrene and related styrofoam type products (though they do a lot to it, this is
the basis for most helmets) will degrade over time. If you don't believe me, buy a styrofoam cooler
and set it outside for a year. You will be surprised how soft it becomes. If you think about the
amount of sweat and salt and rain water and sunshine and everything else that comes in contact with
your helmet it is amazing they hang in as long as they do.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Re: helmet change interval. I'm repeating here: the reasoning behind changing every 3-5 years
is the UV radiation, fumes in the garage/basement, and generally being tossed about. All of
these degrade the EPS that helmets are made out of.

Let's face it, a $100 helmet isn't such a bad deal over 3-5 years. Assuming that don't replace
it, are you willing to live with the potential for the helmet to not protect your head
properly when you take a digger?

Except that there's not exactly tons of evidence that a brand new helmet will protect your head.
Helmet manufacturers use fear rather than facts to sell their product (not that this is unusual-
it's been a hugely sucessful strategy for the insurance industry, and CamelBak even jumped on
the bandwagon with its "Hydrate or Die" slogan- and thus we have middle aged people on upright
discomfort bikes with holy prostate-protective saddles under their butts, holy beer coolers on
their heads, elbow and knee pads, and 10 pounds of water on their backs to go for a 5 mile ride
on the bike trail they drove to in their SUVs).

After cracking a few helmets the hard way, why risk using one "too long"? Busting my noggin on
ashpalt at 30mph isn't a good time to finally prove whether the helmet companies had a good
argument.

I do know that polystyrene and related styrofoam type products (though

they

Quoted message said:

do a lot to it, this is the basis for most helmets) will degrade over

time.

Quoted message said:

If you don't believe me, buy a styrofoam cooler and set it outside for a year. You will be
surprised how soft it becomes. If you think about the amount of sweat and salt and rain water
and sunshine and everything else that comes in contact with your helmet it is amazing they hang
in as long

as

Quoted message said:

they do.

Having said that you need to replace helmets every 3-5 years, I still have a pair of helmets
(Ventoux, Sub-6 Pro) that I was wearing till last year. Good thing I never needed to test them out.

Mike

Art Harris said:

As a user of old school Cinelli Model 64 handlebars, I'm not sure which of the modern bars I want
to use. There seems to be more emphasis on light weight than on durability. Any suggestions for a
good sturdy (but not ridiculous) bar?

It may be worth taking a look at the Nitto bars that Rivendell sell.
--
David Damerell <[email hidden]> Kill the tomato!

In article <[email hidden]>,

Mack Mad said:

After cracking a few helmets the hard way, why risk using one "too long"? Busting my noggin on
ashpalt at 30mph isn't a good time to finally prove whether the helmet companies had a good
argument.

Then to be on the safe side, you should buy yourself a new helmet once a year at the very minimum.
That way you'll know you have fresh styrofoam.

Quoted message said:

I do know that polystyrene and related styrofoam type products (though they do a lot to it, this
is the basis for most helmets) will degrade over time. If you don't believe me, buy a styrofoam
cooler and set it outside for a year. You will be surprised how soft it becomes. If you think
about the amount of sweat and salt and rain water and sunshine and everything else that comes in
contact with your helmet it is amazing they hang in as long as they
do.

I doubt that a beer cooler is a good comparison.

I've been wearing helmets most of the time for, what, 12 years of the 35 I've been riding a bike. My
helmet has been useful twice: once in a road race when I went down in a corner on gravel and the
helmet saved me from some road rash on my head; and earlier this summer when I was knocked off my
bike and assaulted by four teenagers. Didn't prevent a broken-off tooth nor a nondisplaced nose
fracture, but the helmet was quite dented and battered (actually broken in two but held together by
the shell) and I suffered only concussion.