I’m 39 years old this year, and I’ve got a lot of mileage on my chassis. I have a collection of minor injuries and ailments that could really tire you if I were to actually elaborate, but I will save you from the horror that is the laundry list of maladies that composes my body’s palmares of nastiness. I will mention, though that I have a lump on my head that’s so large it could almost be considered a horn – but it’s a lucky lump. You can offer me cash or prizes and I’ll let you rub it.

 
One of my ailments is my trick right shoulder. As the season wears on, I get soreness in my shoulder that requires icing or alcohol intake to make it feel better. I usually opt for alcohol therapy – is there nothing alcohol can’t do? But what am I to do in to prepare for the possibility of medicinal alcohol being unavailable? Perhaps I can follow the route of those advanced in both age and bank account, and look to carbon fiber to ease my pains.
 
Carbon fiber is like a fountain of youth for creaky fossils. It can be shaped and laid in ways (granted, sometimes in very, very ugly ways) to maximize comfort and yet still not fall to pieces in your hands. Since the process for working with carbon fiber is pretty accessible, it allows a lot of builders to create inventive shapes and ergonomics that aren’t possible in the world of metal. The world of metal also denies its citizens regular showers and non-black clothing, but that’s the price you pay to rock.
 
The carbon fiber medical implement that I’m putting to the test is a set of FSA SL-K bars. Before I get to the review itself, I have to address the chorus of those concerned citizens that like to bang the drum of “sudden catastrophic failure.” Since mounting these bars, I’ve heard this phrase repeated more than once, to the point where it almost compares to “you’ll shoot your eye out.” And I’d like to think people are concerned about my safety when they mention this potential pitfall, but I imagine that they might just be hoping to cash in on the over/under as it applies to my falling on my face.
 
The big concern lies in the fact that these are handlebars, one of the crucial contact points on a bicycle, we’re talking about; and people seem especially set in their thinking about whether carbon fiber belongs on handlebars or not. For most people, it comes down to whether they trust carbon fiber as a material that will not burst into a fine dust in their brightly colored leather gloves.
 
The best way to test this would be to create a machine that actually destroys the bars and record the stress data, but since I’m not a super-genius like Andy Shen, and I enjoy having carbon bars; I thought it might be a good idea to talk to a good source to find out about carbon as a material. I emailed Ric Hjertberg, who, as a point of full disclosure, works at FSA, and is the captain of the magic elves who create the carbon magic at FSA, or at least that’s how I remember his title. Here’s our mini-interview below.
 

schmalz I’m emailing to first thank you for the chance to test your handlebars, and secondly to ask a few questions about the bars. The question most riders ask me is something along the lines of: what about catastrophic failure with carbon? In fact, people love to throw around the catastrophic failure thing – why is that?

 
Hjertberg  You’re in an interesting zone right now. Carbon fiber (CF) is the most tempting, fashionably HOT, structurally awesome, poorly understood, wrongly hyped, and widely mistrusted material cycling has ever encountered. Beware, or you’ll be pulled under in a blink!
 
 Some general points:
 
 For components, this material is incredibly accessible. Many state of the art CF planes are built in garages. You buy the stuff as cloth and glue and assemble like a piñata. No metals to machine or weld. No precise tolerances (it would seem) to juggle. Like baking a cake, eh? This admits loads of unqualified makers. The most frightening experiences we have are slicing open handlebars from other makers and gawking at the uneven walls, voids, and molding failures. This is definitely a place where you should only patronize a company you entirely trust.
 

Watch out for things like this.

 Testing plays a MUCH larger role with CF because: we all have less experience than with metal, and it’s exponentially harder to calculate/predict performance with CF than with metal. Components are, in my experience, less tolerant of bad design and fabrication than frames, and the consequences (except for forks) are often severe. FSA uses the same testing standards (CEN) for metal and for CF. Same impacts, same fatigue limits. So, the CF part should be AT LEAST as sound as the metal equivalent.
 
 CF structures in general, are MUCH more resistant to fatigue than metals. This is a big deal with Boeing. The 787 has a service life that’s 2-1/2 times that of the same plane made of aluminum. The material is not made of crystals (as metal), so cracks don’t have designated paths to follow. CF tends to arrest the cracks that accelerate in metals.

Testing. Testing.
 
 Catastrophic failure is common with aluminums, the material CF is replacing. If you were around 20 years ago, you saw a lot of catastrophic breakage with aluminum parts. The forks, cranks, bars, and posts were especially depressing. So, “what about catastrophic failure?” I’d say the best place to dodge it is with a material like CF. Steel, the “gold standard” among traditional bike theorists, corrodes and can have a drastically abbreviated life on that account. Steel starts with thinner walls, due to density, so the corrosion is especially significant. CF is practically immune to corrosion and fatigue. So it wins double.
 
 Catastrophic failure will continue as a topic so long as: (a) the market is unfamiliar with the material (it arouses suspicion) and, (b) unqualified makers sell terrible product. You noticed China clamping down on carbon frames last week. BIG deal. The potential for havoc is huge. Even that nation dreads a worst case. In the US and EU, a lot of CF expertise comes from aerospace, where the QC is almost paralyzing. Most of us are more cautious.
 
schmalz Interesting – it seems to me that working with CF would be more flexible than working with metals because with metals, you are working with only one “grain” direction (to borrow a woodworking term), whereas with CF you can lay the weaves in different directions and effectively tune the “grain”.
 

Hjertberg Yes, you’re exactly right. But one way to state the opportunity: CF is more flexible, increasing performance options arithmetically but increasing manufacturing and function pitfalls exponentially. When all is said and done, better engineering is required and the net is extremely positive – hence the (Boeing) 787, a bigger aviation improvement in one step than has ever been seen before.

Also, woodworking = composites! The lessons are numerous. If you Google “deHavilland Mosquito”, you’ll see it was the fastest, strongest, longest lasting, and most successful single airplane in all of WWII (all sides of the conflict). Historically, however, the design complexities led commercial aeronautics to flee from wood, a trend uninterrupted until today.

schmalz Funny, so CF is the “plywood” of bicycle construction materials. And as everyone knows, plywood is much stronger and more versatile than plain wood boards. People know that, don’t they?

How do you guys accommodate for any damage that would happen to your parts, i.e., if you get a nick or scratch on a part as opposed to more serious damage? When do you recommend replacing parts?

Hjertberg We’re talking composites: two or more materials combined and producing superior performance to the ingredients alone. The first human devised composite was probably straw and mud construction. Straw has good tensile properties and mud can carry compression. Cured, often at elevated temperatures, it makes an outstanding construction material. Today, reinforced concrete is our principal composite construction material. Wood is nature’s most useful composite, one that humans hugely depend upon and have learned to even improve.

Regarding damage, some points:

We design components to withstand substantial damage. The outer layers of material are armor, nicking them, even breaking some of those fibers, is usually superficial. Touch up with clear nail polish to seal the surface and improve the finish. Of course, I can’t speak for other brands. This is FSA’s approach.

Carbon boats and planes are repaired, not throw away. When and how can we repair bike parts? When in doubt, seek advice. Go directly to the maker. These days, CF parts are trying to be super light, so the margin for error is small. Repairs are not recommended by any makers. However, Craig Calfee offers repairs to most carbon bikes and parts. I can’t confirm his service, but his bikes are beautiful and he’s been at it for as long as anyone in the industry. The 3rd World will probably see more repair work, out of necessity. Today, we prefer to play it safe.

One of the dangers with CF is that damage can be nearly invisible, compared to metals. Metals tell you largely what happened in a trauma. CF bikes and parts can seem unaffected by big blows. If there’s a scuff, check it out. A soft spot or dull sound (when tapped lightly with a quarter) indicates delamination, a total failure of the structure in that spot. Delamination is a very bad sign, don’t ignore it. But absent a soft spot or an obvious crack, composite parts are probably OK whatever they’ve been through.

It was then that Ric tired of me pestering him about composites; I suppose he had better things to take care of.

Where does this leave us?

Which brings us back to where we started – handlebars. Good bars are like most good components, you mount them up and if they perform well, you almost forget that they are there. It took me a short time to get used to the shape and shallower drop of the FSA SL-K bars, but now that I’ve become acclimated to them, I automatically know where to place my hands. I like the flat shape of the tops, it’s a very comfortable for me. My trick shoulder hasn’t required any ice, although I’ve been using booze in a preventative manner (you can never be too careful), and the bars have not catastrophically failed in any way.

Time for hate
 
Carbon is expensive. And while we’re stating the obvious, let me also add that the sky might be blue and the 2008 Spears family Christmas photo might show some cleavage.  These bars will set you back around $250. So if you’re thrifty, you can get a set of alloy bars that weight about the same amount for less. But you might have to budget to spend some extra money on booze.