Handlebar failure how long should a pair of bars last

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NUKe
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Handlebar failure how long should a pair of bars last

Post by NUKe »

My Cineli Vai bars failed today, Fortunately I managed to sense it was happening, so not catestrophic. but it has sheered through next to the stem. I did have bit of advance warning in that the bike on occassions had given a strange clicking over the last couple of days, but I hadn't narrowed it down. The bars are 3years old with a little over 25000 miles. Do Modern bars have a finite life or have I just been unlucky?
The split is Jaggard but clean which suggest it went fairly Quickly.
Last edited by NUKe on 27 Jan 2015, 5:21pm, edited 1 time in total.
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al_yrpal
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Re: Handlebar failure HOw long should a pair of bars last

Post by al_yrpal »

For ever.... unless they are Cinelli !
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LollyKat
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Re: Handlebar failure HOw long should a pair of bars last

Post by LollyKat »

Post a photo of the break and see what Brucey has to say.
Brucey
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Re: Handlebar failure HOw long should a pair of bars last

Post by Brucey »

I'd be interested to see that.

FWIW modern Cinelli bars like the Vai are like almost everyone else's, in that they don't have a centre sleeve, but do have a single-walled centre bulge. IMHO their older designs were probably more reliable, because they had a centre sleeve.

Any slight scratch in a single-walled centre bulge, or a sharp edge to the clamp, can turn into a fatigue crack in time. By contrast a centre sleeve can be gouged to blazes, crack even, and it won't cause the bars to fail immediately.

The smooth parts of the fracture face are probably the fatigue crack, and the jaggy bits may be close to (or in) the final fracture.

cheers
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Valbrona
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Re: Handlebar failure HOw long should a pair of bars last

Post by Valbrona »

These bars might have been made in the factory in Taiwan that makes bars for lots of other 'manufacturers'. Was the stem clamp the right size for these bars, and failing that my first guess would be that the stem bolts have been overtightened.
I should coco.
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NUKe
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Re: Handlebar failure HOw long should a pair of bars last

Post by NUKe »

Aoppolgies Brucey I am having problems getting a decent picture I can downsize to get on the forum.
Valbrona wrote:These bars might have been made in the factory in Taiwan that makes bars for lots of other 'manufacturers'. Was the stem clamp the right size for these bars, and failing that my first guess would be that the stem bolts have been overtightened.

No idea if they were Taiwanese,but the Taiwanese make quite a lot of quality kit. The Stem clamp was the one made for the bars And I know they weren't overtightened because I tightened them myself. As I said in the original post, they are a little over 3 years old and have done 25k. I would have expected manufacturing/ incorrect fitting to have shown up before now.
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mig
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Re: Handlebar failure HOw long should a pair of bars last

Post by mig »

would you consider all your usage to be within expected parameters too? i think ALL of my handlebars have covered more distance than that. not sure whether i should be worried or not!
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NUKe
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Re: Handlebar failure HOw long should a pair of bars last

Post by NUKe »

mig wrote:would you consider all your usage to be within expected parameters too? i think ALL of my handlebars have covered more distance than that. not sure whether i should be worried or not!

Yes my usage is quite normal.
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Audax67
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Re: Handlebar failure HOw long should a pair of bars last

Post by Audax67 »

Crikey, and I've been using my el cheapo ally bars since 2002.
Have we got time for another cuppa?
RJS
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Re: Handlebar failure HOw long should a pair of bars last

Post by RJS »

Had two freinds whos bars broke, one very old steel, down a steep hill, badly broken sholder :( . The second had just completed the P.B.P. and was going very slowly, and managed not to fall off :shock: .
Cheers, Rob.
Jezrant
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Re: Handlebar failure HOw long should a pair of bars last

Post by Jezrant »

Some claim that the sleeves on bars are themselves potential stress-risers. BTW, the current Cinelli reproduction Giro d'Italia (64) bars have the sleeves like the original ones but, also like the originals, they don't have grooves for the brake cables. Don't know where they're made (not sure it means much anyway these days). Lucky you didn't come to grief. Snapped bars can be very very nasty.
Jughead
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Re: Handlebar failure HOw long should a pair of bars last

Post by Jughead »

I thought I had 'upgraded' the ones on my Rockhopper for a slightly wider pair. They lasted about a year then halved in two as I was belting down a trail. That was fun.
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NUKe
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Re: Handlebar failure HOw long should a pair of bars last

Post by NUKe »

not brilliant but it just about shows what happend
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bend3.jpg
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Brucey
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Re: Handlebar failure HOw long should a pair of bars last

Post by Brucey »

Jezrant wrote:Some claim that the sleeves on bars are themselves potential stress-risers...


I have heard the same thing too. I don't buy it; the broken handlebars I have seen have been overwhelmingly those without a centre sleeve.

cheers
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Brucey
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Re: Handlebar failure HOw long should a pair of bars last

Post by Brucey »

NUKe wrote:not brilliant but it just about shows what happend


that tube is profiled to save weight. I can't see where the clamp is set there; can you indicate where a plumb-line would fall in that picture? It looks quite possible that they have set the profile at the wrong orientation there before they put the bends in.

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