Are carbon bars safe for cross racing? anybody using them? I got a Ritchey WCS collecting dust but some courses can be very bumpy here in Nor Cal

Yes.

I use 3T carbon. They're fine.

Have you ever tried to break a set of carbon bars? I cracked a set by over - tightening aerobar clamps. Since they were then useless I tried to break them, just to see how strong they were. Even with the crack they were impossible to break.

I have broken several carbon bar racing CX. I don't know if unsafe is the issue. Just don't race what you can't afford to replace.

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2 Serotta's, 1 Spectrum, 1 Van Dessel, 1 Parlee & 1 Carl Strong, & 1 Titus.

I've always wanted a carbon bar, but shops always discourage me from buying them. one shop even said they only should be used for a year then replaced. Revo Cycles Dana Point

The problem with carbon is if you crash you might not notice a hairline crack, you get back on your bike and BOOM it falls apart. With aluminum USUALLY you'll see it's bent before it breaks into two pieces.

I'd use them, just be careful and if you crash or even if the bike falls over, inspect your bars.

Aluminium also fails catastrophically. It would be interesting to see the relative failure rates of bars made of the two materials.

I agree with the bottom line: be good to your equipment, inspect it after any crash, replace it if there's any doubt.

Your weight could be taken into consideration as well. Carbon is strong but I'm not sure how much I'd trust carbon bars being 200+ pounds (that's just me I guess). I am only 145lbs and run the stock carbon Specialized bars that came with my Crux Carbon and they've been great, no issues at all.

I have Cannondale carbon bars on my Super X. They feel rock solid. Nothing like my old aluminum Ritchey. I'm 155 pounds.
Those new Thomson KFC bars look good...

Out here in New England, a lot of guys race cross on carbon bars. And every season, there are a pile of broken bars. You don't see it as much with Al. I wouldn't say that the CF bars have a high failure rate but it's definitely noticeable and more than I'd accept. Like another poster said, don't race what you can't afford to replace.

I've been using 3T carbon bars on both racing and training bike for 4 years. They are light and still rock

I do more or less 25 races a year and do training almost on daily basis for months. I had issues of any kind, but never with 3T carbon bars

3T gets my vote

Plasma Integrated on two bikes and after nearly 3-full seasons, the only issue has been the loss of a thin cover glued to underside of the bar tops to provide an internal channel for the cables, which got torn following a crash in the thawing frozen muck at master's worlds 2012.

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Michael - The Anaerobic Threshold is neither...