Re: [CR]Replacing Aluminum Handlebars

(Example: Production Builders:Tonard)

Subject: Re: [CR]Replacing Aluminum Handlebars
Cc: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
From: <Sid_Smith@baxter.com>
Date: Thu, 23 Oct 2003 20:14:00 -0500


Dale, please forgive the "me too". but we oughta put this one to bed.

Jerry is correct. Aluminum may oxidize a few microns, but unless you load it, it's good to go in a day or a decade. Now, the crazy light bars on the other hand may be failing not from fatigue, but from a stress riser caused by the stem clamp.

I prefer to be confident in my equipment, so I deburr the stem edges where the bar is clamped, a few moments with crocus cloth and the stem is ready for a bar. I'd bet far more bars have failed from improper installation than "fatigue". It is also prudent to inspect your bike periodically for cracks, bent parts etc. I'm at a triathlon this weekend, and assembled my buddies bikes last night. Given the condition they arrived in, I wouldn't have ridden either of them. They'll be safe Saturday, but each got a list of things to take care of over the winter.

Regarding my background, I'm an engineer - Chem E. / Mechanical , but more importantly, am a practicing design engineer (medical devices). As such, I try to stay passably current on failure modes and effects. Aluminum is employed in some of my work. Unless you are storing it in a corrosive atmosphere, I wouldn't be too concerned about aging.

Sid Smith Currently enjoying very warm weather in Clermont, FL where he is about to engage in some very off topic activities.

jerrymoos <jerrymoos@sbcglobal.net> To: LouDeeter@aol.com, classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Sent by: cc: classicrendezvous-bounces@bi Subject: Re: [CR]Replacing Aluminum Handlebars kelist.org

10/23/2003 08:01 PM

Sound like complete and utter BS to me. We all know about fatigue failure in aluminum, but that doesn't happen if it has never been loaded. And aluminum doesn't corrode with age, at least no more than a few microns at the surface.

Not a metallurgist, just a chemical engineer, but I usually know BS when I hear it.

Regards,

Jerry Moos
Houston, TX


----- Original Message -----
From: LouDeeter@aol.com
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Sent: Thursday, October 23, 2003 12:16 PM
Subject: [CR]Replacing Aluminum Handlebars



> In the latest Rivendell Reader, #30 (I'm sure you are all subscribers, right?), Page 14, in an interview with the President of Nitto, the question is asked about whether aluminum handlebars should be replaced every five years, even if they have not been crashed. The answer says that if you have an aluminum handlebar that is ten years old and never used, that it will be "significantly" (quotation marks added by me) weaker than when it was new. Anybody know why this would be? It doesn't make sense to me, but then, I'm no metallurgist, just a rocket scientist.......Lou Deeter, Orlando FL