I've never broken a bar before. I don't have a particular process/set of criteria to replace bars, but I certainly do pay attention to them. My risk tolerance for stuff in front of the BB is a lot less than my risk tolerance at the back of the bike. So any real visible damage I'd put a new bar on.
Like with most bike stuff I prefer metal bars. It's not that I wouldn't ride carbon. I worked in composite manufacturing and you can make great carbon products, but for MTB applications I think metal is a better choice. It's also easier/more intuitive to for a layman to visually assess damage to a metal bar than a carbon one. If someone made a carbon bar that I felt confident about the quality of with a 31.8mm clamp, enough backsweep/rise, comfortable flex and at a competitive cost I wouldn't say no out of hand. That said my experience has been that metal bars generally fit my desired specs better with no downside for me.
I do keep a box with a few bars I like handy. Since I like oddball bars I can buy one when it's available, maybe even on sale, and that way when I need a fresh set of bars I am not tempted to keep riding bars that should be retired since fresh bars are only a few minutes of swap work away.
March 3, 2022, 8:51 a.m. - Vik Banerjee
I've never broken a bar before. I don't have a particular process/set of criteria to replace bars, but I certainly do pay attention to them. My risk tolerance for stuff in front of the BB is a lot less than my risk tolerance at the back of the bike. So any real visible damage I'd put a new bar on. Like with most bike stuff I prefer metal bars. It's not that I wouldn't ride carbon. I worked in composite manufacturing and you can make great carbon products, but for MTB applications I think metal is a better choice. It's also easier/more intuitive to for a layman to visually assess damage to a metal bar than a carbon one. If someone made a carbon bar that I felt confident about the quality of with a 31.8mm clamp, enough backsweep/rise, comfortable flex and at a competitive cost I wouldn't say no out of hand. That said my experience has been that metal bars generally fit my desired specs better with no downside for me. I do keep a box with a few bars I like handy. Since I like oddball bars I can buy one when it's available, maybe even on sale, and that way when I need a fresh set of bars I am not tempted to keep riding bars that should be retired since fresh bars are only a few minutes of swap work away.