I’ve broken a road bar once though my own stupidity. I’d drilled it for internal cable routing. I’ve broken a number of seat posts and one steer tube snapped off. I know guys that have broken stuff too. One friend snapped off a fork and hit the ground hard. Well over 100 stitches to close his face back up. I don’t take chances like that anymore. Read the manual and retire things like bars and stems on a regular schedule. Or if I’ve scuffed the part badly. Lots of bars break at the stem because the stems have sharp edges even inside where the extension meets the clamp. Leuscher tech did a video on bar breakage for road bikes. That’s his finding. After having used carbon and aluminum bars I find zero difference in feel. Bar flex for comfort to me is total marketing crap. But I’m a light rider. Maybe chubbier guys can feel a mm of flex after that 160 travel fork bottoms out after the tire bottoms out too. But if bars flex for comfort, they would have to come with a soft flex for me and a hard flex for the somewhat fleshy Clydesdale riders wouldn’t they? Cross country skis come with a weight range to suit the skier. Race skis generally come in soft medium and hard flex. That bar with two Girvin Flex stems built in comes with different bumpers. That makes more sense but I wouldn’t touch one myself. But yeah, a cheaper aluminum bar is more palatable to retire early from use or a crash than an expensive bar.
March 3, 2022, 12:52 p.m. - Andy Eunson
I’ve broken a road bar once though my own stupidity. I’d drilled it for internal cable routing. I’ve broken a number of seat posts and one steer tube snapped off. I know guys that have broken stuff too. One friend snapped off a fork and hit the ground hard. Well over 100 stitches to close his face back up. I don’t take chances like that anymore. Read the manual and retire things like bars and stems on a regular schedule. Or if I’ve scuffed the part badly. Lots of bars break at the stem because the stems have sharp edges even inside where the extension meets the clamp. Leuscher tech did a video on bar breakage for road bikes. That’s his finding. After having used carbon and aluminum bars I find zero difference in feel. Bar flex for comfort to me is total marketing crap. But I’m a light rider. Maybe chubbier guys can feel a mm of flex after that 160 travel fork bottoms out after the tire bottoms out too. But if bars flex for comfort, they would have to come with a soft flex for me and a hard flex for the somewhat fleshy Clydesdale riders wouldn’t they? Cross country skis come with a weight range to suit the skier. Race skis generally come in soft medium and hard flex. That bar with two Girvin Flex stems built in comes with different bumpers. That makes more sense but I wouldn’t touch one myself. But yeah, a cheaper aluminum bar is more palatable to retire early from use or a crash than an expensive bar.