TBH “looking cool” has driven most of my recent bike purchase decisions
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I opted to go crabon bars before stem, I couldn’t justify the weight savings:cost ratio and most of what I read matched @Face’s description, just kinda cool. Dunno if you already have or not but I like it. Does sort of feel a little suspension-ey in a way
Carbon bars are the way. Especially anything that gets into rough roads or trails. Mountain bikes especially!
I haven’t spent any time on a carbon stem but I imagine beyond weight and maybe lateral stiffness you just get a fraction of the cool points of the bar/stem combo for a fraction of the price.
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I have carbon barstems on 2 of 3 bikes and they look cool but that’s about it.
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I like them too but climbing out of the saddle was a little weird at first because of the narrowness at the hoods
yeah, it’s my understanding that carbon stems have to resist sudden loads and twisting in enough different directions that they wind up having similar ride properties as alloy, just a few grams lighter.
i should try carbon bars, i still have it in my head that they are sketchy, but i may have not updated that since like 2005
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It’s 2021, come on in the carbons* fine.
*I do not condone the use of China carbon, I do not know anyone who has died on China carbon.
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I have a barstem thing from when I worked on that kind of stuff
It’s nice cause it’s light I suppose
I’m annoyed by it because there’s nowhere good to put a bell
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china carbon has come a long way with retail carbon. I have a few brands I regular shop with and they always seem to have good quality control. If you are getting the absolute cheapest thing on aliexpress from a seller with 6 feedback you might have a bad time. That said I got a carbon stem mostly for the aesthetic. Carbon bars are actually pretty comfy. I typically get OG Evkin brand stuff if they have what I am looking for. I have these bars. They seem well made and haven’t exploded yet.
*recommendations from an internet stranger are nut a substitute for cpsc testing
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yeah, I definitely don’t buy the permanent skepticism of chinese brand carbon stuff, I mean three of my bikes have Light Bicycle rims. I am thinking more about the word on the street when carbon bars started getting popular in the mid-2000, which was “they’re so light! kinda flexy …uh… definitely replace them if you crash or your bike falls over” which was not a huge confidence builder.
I’ve probably rambled about this regarding other bike parts too (like road tubeless) but I tend to hear about a new thing, note that the implementation seems a little unrefined, and then don’t really think about it again for a decade or two, at which point if the thing is still around, it’s probably gotten better. That last part just doesn’t seem to make it into my bike part evaluation heuristic.
I just bought some carbon wheels too, but went for a “name” brand because I want to be able to drop them off at the local shop if there are any issues (they have a warranty and a crash replacement plan). I have no illusions that they’re somehow inherently better than China carbon, but I’m ok with paying more in this case for the support avenue.
Oh yeah it’s definitely not like that anymore
Folx got options on flexiness, and durability is great
Although light and flexy do still go hand in hand, so if you want the lightest thing you will have to accept some flexiness
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The main thing here, and with light bicycle is that somebody with some skin in the game so to speak already vetted the product.
Some of the chinese brands of carbon would probably be pretty annoyed if they had to rebrand all their stock because they had a public catastrophic failure.
That’s true, and I’ve considered buying some LB wheels and I’m sure they’re great, I just don’t want to deal with shipping things back and forth these days.
I haven’t had any problems with mine. I got some built to i9 hubs. They were/are very nice.
To add, they were really cool to deal with. They sold me some endcaps at cost so I could use my wheels across multiple bikes easily. They are based in canada so the shipping isn’t too annoying really. It took less than a week to get my wheels.
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When I say China carbon I’m only speaking of the unbranded or stuff.
Almost all carbon is made in China and Taiwan or whatever, so it’s all China carbon really. I would totally use light bicycle rims because they are an established brand. The stuff that you only see on aliexpress/amazon/eBay is always suspect for me, carbon or not.
My new pavement bike is spectacular.
I have a 10.2-mile TT route that I use to test new things and I did it yesterday at 0.5 mph faster than I have ever done before AND I got stuck at an intersection that I almost never get stuck at for a minute so the difference is likely larger. It was definitely not due to fresh legs because I went for a long ride the day before.
My position is identical to that on my old bike and conditions were good. Not sure what is making the difference, could be some combo of tires, wheels, and especially the more aero position the Enve aero bars put me in – the hoods are much closer together than on my older bike.
That is all. Love this thing. Now I just have to get around to flipping the stem around for more drop.
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Ok so I should try these?
https://m.aliexpress.com/item/32802180727.html?spm=a2g0n.productlist.0.0.3d60489dXrJnqE
I wouldn’t. The “prime” bars on chain reaction have been doing well for me on my road bike and were very affordable, and stupid light.
Those seem very near an ergoban. Or maybe it’s just the angle.