|   All cracked up.... | Sea Otter
Sep 22, 2003 2:30 PM | | OK. I'm not a carbon basher in any way. Let me qualify my stance by saying I have a carbon Trek road bike and have Easton Monkeylite carbon risers on my Blur. Up until last week I also had carbon risers (26 inches wide) on my SS. I put bar ends (LP's) on my SS to help on the climbs (I know some folks hate bar ends on risers!). I really like the extra hand position and the extra pull I can get when grinding up a hill. I used a torque wrench to make sure I had the Thomson stem and bar ends torqued to specifications to ensure I would not crack the bars per the directions.
I've been running that set up or a couple months and last week I nearly took and unexpected trip over the handlebars. I was climbing a series of three hills call the three (female dogs) on the Sea Otter course and was hammering to get up the third sister (by the way, she is the ugliest of the three). Near the top my left bar end shot straight down and I nearly did a Lance Armstrong going chest first into my stem during a climb.
When I got home I realized the end of the bar had severely cracked and nearly sheered off! Seeing the damage I came to the conclusion I would rather deal with the extra weight of aluminum than take a chance of this happening again and suffering a spill. I called Easton to inquire and spoke with a rep that basically told me that in his opinion he would not run bar ends on carbon bars. He stated if you are hell bent on running bar ends I should go to aluminum or the carbon downhill model due to the additional strength.
I'm sure some folks will respond with "I've been running bar ends on carbon bars", well guess what so have I. I've run bar ends on a Superlight for two years and never experienced a failure at all. My only guess is you pull significantly harder on the bars with a SS rig than a geared bike. |
| re: All cracked up....due to bar ends.... | Padre
Sep 29, 2003 2:06 PM | | |
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