I have a pair of those which I fully intend to use on either a 1979 Holdsworth Team or a l980's Falcon, probably whichever gets built up first. I personally rarely worry about an item being "too valuable to use" unless it is NOS, and sometimes not even then. I also don't lose any sleep over using old alloy bars, the one exception being the infamous AVA bars found on late 60's/ early 70's PX-10s among other bikes. It is a very good idea to carefully inspect old bars for cracks before use. By doing so I found some nasty hairline cracks in a pair of the aforementioned AVAs, having been warned about these bars by posts here. It would probably be a good idea to untape old bars annually and inspect for cracks, though I must confess I don't personally do this unless the tape otherwise requires replacement or rewrapping.
Regards,
Jerry "most of my fatigue failures involve my body, not the bike" Moos
Monkeyman wrote:
> I was putting my Raleigh Lenton Gran Prix together for a nice classic rider
> and was going to put a GB bar and stem on the bike. I was looking at Dale's
> page later in the day and saw my bars
> <http://www.cyclesdeoro.com/GB_bars_1.htm>. Dale's page says, "The most
> sought after GB bar variation?", what is this bar? should it be used as
> barter fodder and not put on a "rider"? What should I do?
>
> While on the subject of bars do you folks on the list use old bars on your
> riders? I was thinking of aluminum fatigue and bar breakage on bars 10+
> years old and was thinking many of us are riding arould on "unsafe" bars.
> When I'm at work I recommend people replace their bars every 3-5 years but
> most of these people put 20000+ miles on these a year, I know some of you
> on the list put these many miles on your "classic" bikes. So I want to
> know what you do about bars? NOS, used, modern?
>
> enjoy,
> Brandon a.k.a. monkeyman
> sunny 60degree Santa Barbara, Calif
>
> Brandon and Mitzi's-- "Wurld uv Wunder"
> http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/
>
> !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
> Nobody can do everything,
> but if everybody did something
> everything would get done.
> -Gil Scott Heron-
> !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!