Just wondering if anyone knows a good place to acquire a set of white carbon bars and stem from? Also are the integrated bars a good buy? And finally a friend has told me about sites in China/Hong Kong, but I`m really not sure about these, they are cheap but are they any good? I`m a complete newbie here so please excuse my ignorance. I`m presuming this has been dealt with many times before, so I beg your patience. Thanks in advance for any help. I have just purchased a Specialised Roubaix Expert and would like to make it all carbon.

i've heard many stories about the bars... stay away!
get a kit from enve or 3t.. they know how to make good carbon components..

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CARPE DIEM
Colnago C59 Italia GLBK
Up coming custom steel cyclocross

I'm not familiar with discount, no-name sources for carbon bars and stems so I can't specifically speak on that. With that out of the way, I personally take a risk assessment of what parts I put on my bike and where I am willing to cut corners or not. Stems, bars, and seat posts are not components I'm willing to compromise on. I want to be as secure as possible in the quality and manufacture of these parts because if they break, I'm probably going down with loss of skin and possibly teeth.

Specific to stems, there are plenty of white aluminum models available from various reputable manufacturers. Any benefits of a carbon stem are minimal and come at great co$t.

I run integrated carbon bars/stem. They have their advantages. I however, would be leery of buying them from no-name china shops: a failure in the bar and stem could easily result in very serious injuries.

You'd be better off buying aluminum in most cases.

Thanks for the advice guys, I guess I`ll go down the aluminium route, these copy/fake Chinese bars etc. certainly look a bit dodgy anyway. Just needed it confirming!!

The reason ive never drank the chinese/ebay kool-aid is consistency.

I can trust that ENVE or FSA will make less mistakes because they make higher volumes and have a larger feedback control group (at least i hope if you go down because of their gear you'd let them know about it.).

"chinese" carbon im sure is ok, but i personally prefer to have established professionals build my components

if a Zipp stem snaps, theres a whole division at zipp that deal with claims.

Chinese stem snaps, send an e-mail and pray

Care to share these stories? There are too many people who believe just that these components don't have a well known brand they will be unsafe. I bet these are just as safe as branded stuff. Having said that, it is true that if something does go wrong then buying a product with a recognised brand like FSA will put you in a much better situation.

I have been using a Chinese carbon seat post for 6 months and have no problems whatsoever. It offers way better bang for buck than FSA or ENVE. 167 gram seat-post for £25 pounds posted, yes please. I do use aluminum bars and stem though. An Extralite stem and KCNC bars weighs less than 300 grams