Alas, Mark's tale of woe isn't unique in any way and is a too often brushed off. As a rule any bike I ride over 25mph has a bar with less than 10,000 miles on it. Many "classic" bars have 50,000+ and people still ride them, this is taking your life in your hands. Odds are I'm even more frugal than Mark's friend and have also never broken a bar, but I've seen the outcomes too often to ignore the problem. I know a few people that will never be able to ride a "standard" bike again because of a broken bar. Tons of folks will say, "Well I've never broken a bar in all my years of riding" well good for you. Talk to a metalurgist or search the web for information and you'll learn why alloy handlebars are the most dangerious thing on a bicycle. sorry for the downer, Brandon Ives
"Nobody can do everything, but if everybody did something everything would get done." Gil Scott-Heron
On Thu, 31 May 2001, Mark Poore wrote:
> This might be of interest to some of you. My neighbors brother and his
> friends get together each year, this being the 21st, and do a 100+ mile road
> ride here at the resort. It takes place the first weekend it May, Cirque
> weekend that is why I didnt ride this year. Twenty-four riders from around
> the country gathered Saturday morning to start their ride. Eleven miles down
> the road they start a 4-mile climb followed by 4 or 5 miles of rolling
> terrain then a 5-mile downhill. Kim, my neighbors brother, was third man
> back and by his accounts they were doing only 40-45 mph because of the wind.
> The front man, who was from California, hit a very small hole and his
> handlebar broke. He went down and the fellow behind him hit his bike and
> went over the bars. Kim did a panic stop into the gravel and said he was
> glad that he had practiced those kinds of stops. The lead fellow hit hard
> and ended up with holes in his ankle and knee to the bone, a punctured lung
> and a collar bone broken in three places. He was known as being a very
> frugal person and not one to buy anything new. I saw his bike last year and
> it is vintage, which almost seemed out of place with the latest greatest
> that the other folks were riding. Several years ago, after many broken bar
> episodes in mountain biking, the recommendation came that after two or three
> years, any scores in the metal or a hard crash the bars should be replaced.
> Now I know that road bars dont come under the same abuse as a mountain
> bikes, but nonetheless the latter of the three should be considered
> justification for replacement.
>
> BTW, he is still in West Virginia, as he cannot fly with the punctured lung.
>
> Just food for thought,
>
> Mark, keep the rubber side down, Poore