handlebar corrosion

[tjk23]

I am having issues with my handlebar corroding. I ride a lot on the trainer due to work restrictions and even with changing the handlebar tape every other month the bars are still corroding. Would carbon bars do the same thing?

[Cicli]

Carbon wont corrode due to sewat and salt.

[mecse]

I am having issues with my handlebar corroding. I ride a lot on the trainer due to work restrictions and even with changing the handlebar tape every other month the bars are still corroding. Would carbon bars do the same thing?

I'm fascinated I haven't heard of this as a problem. Do you have a photo?

[Cicli]

Probably a triathlete. :fight:

[tjk23]

Not a triathlete, just a heavy sweater. I would have to unwrap the bar to take a picture. The sweat builds up right at the shifter clamp and causes salt deposits.

[mg2ride]

I'm fascinated I haven't heard of this as a problem. Do you have a photo?

It is very common and there have been many threads about it. Here are just a few.

http://forums.thepaceline.net/showthread.php?t=157087&highlight=bars+corrosion

http://forums.thepaceline.net/showthread.php?t=131311&highlight=bars+corrosion

http://forums.thepaceline.net/showthread.php?t=97260&highlight=bars+corrosion

[regularguy412]

Heh, Heh, Heh. I have bars that have HOLES corroded all the way through after just 2 seasons' use. Carbon won't corrode. Some of the lever mounting hardware might, though I've not experienced that issue.

I help prevent corrosion from happening to mine by giving the bars two or three coats of clear lacquer over-spray prior to mounting them up. This is done only in areas that will be under bar wrap or lever hoods. Then when I mount up the bars and after setting the levers on, I'll do one nice wrap of black electrical tape in the same over-lapping manner that I do the bar wrap. This helps create a couple of extra layers that the salt water has to get thru before it can contact the bar surface.

It doesn't completely prevent salt water infiltration, but for a heavy=sweater it helps cut down on how often I have to unwrap the bars to do routine maintenance.

Oh, and this happens on the bikes that I ride exclusively outdoors. I guess it's because I put more miles on them than I do my trainer bike.

Mike in AR:beer:

[Dead Man]

I pre-wrap my alloy bars in electrical tape, then bar tape over that.

[kramnnim]

A local friend had his alloy bars break mid ride due to sweat corrosion...I was quite surprised.

[CSTRider]

Amazed to see so many examples in this and past threads - i was aware this could happen but have to wonder if something "new" is going on:
- lighter bars with thinner walled aluminum?
- new porous AL surface treatments?
- recent trend riding without gloves/riding on hoods etc?
- comfy/absorbent bar wrap that retains moisture?
- some mix of the above?

[cd_davis]

Lived in Singapore for six years, hot and humid on the equator. The locals and we ex-pats rode 3-4 times weekly. Most of us sweated like racehorses which required washing the bikes about once a week. Combining the sweat with washes meant almost everyone's bars corroded despite several preventive measures. The protocol was to just replace the bars about every 2 or so years. Was more about safety and possible bar failure due to the corrosion.
Carbon bars fixed the problem.....

[CSKeller]

Glad people are checking their bars...but god...do some of you sweat battery acid or something??!!

I've had the same Deda alloy bars on my ti Gangl since 2001. I sweat plenty on rides but never had a problem.

I recall an thread several months ago about Lizard Skins bar tape. I guess people were having issues with that but I remember thinking the same 'sweating battery acid' thing whne I saw the pics people posted.

Btw, been running black Lizard Skins tape on my Look KX Light for over 1,000 miles and it still looks new.

Stay safe out there!

[velomonkey]

You want photo proof . . . .

I ride only with winter gloves otherwise no gloves and I ride rollers for probably 3 months. You just gots to check them - I replace my bars probably every 2 years. Myself, I would rather deal with this than switch to carbon. I got a torque wrench, but it's the bike falling over the basement and then haven to unwrap the bars and check it (which really you should do).

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5641/22868410321_3eff2cdcf8_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/AQNzEz)photo (https://flic.kr/p/AQNzEz)

[regularguy412]

Glad people are checking their bars...but god...do some of you sweat battery acid or something??!!

I've had the same Deda alloy bars on my ti Gangl since 2001. I sweat plenty on rides but never had a problem.

I recall an thread several months ago about Lizard Skins bar tape. I guess people were having issues with that but I remember thinking the same 'sweating battery acid' thing whne I saw the pics people posted.

Btw, been running black Lizard Skins tape on my Look KX Light for over 1,000 miles and it still looks new.

Stay safe out there!

My ole' racing buddy calls it 'Old Man Sweat'. Seems to be more corrosive, somehow, than other sweat. But I'm with Velomonkey on this one. I'd rather replace bars every couple of years. 1) I like the AL bars that I use. 2) I'm not keen on the price of carbon bars.

I do think that some of the issue is related to lighter/thinner AL bars than what we had say.. 20 years ago. I recently reused a Cinelli Eubios bar on my build-up of my Fondo Ti. They had previously seen service on my CSI wayy back in 1997-99. I still sweated like a pig then, but they were in great condition.

Mike in AR:beer:

[weisan]

Lived in Singapore for six years, hot and humid on the equator.

cd pal, we spent a year there and you are right, it gets pretty wet and slippery during the ride especially as the sun comes up higher later in the morning before we finish the ride. Very different kind of riding compared to the US. Fortunately for me, no corrosion issue, maybe didn't spend enough time there for it to happen.

[11.4]

My ole' racing buddy calls it 'Old Man Sweat'. Seems to be more corrosive, somehow, than other sweat. But I'm with Velomonkey on this one. I'd rather replace bars every couple of years. 1) I like the AL bars that I use. 2) I'm not keen on the price of carbon bars.

I do think that some of the issue is related to lighter/thinner AL bars than what we had say.. 20 years ago. I recently reused a Cinelli Eubios bar on my build-up of my Fondo Ti. They had previously seen service on my CSI wayy back in 1997-99. I still sweated like a pig then, but they were in great condition.

Mike in AR:beer:

Alloy bars got increasingly thinner wall thickness for several years, and then European authorities stepped in and required stringent testing. That pushed up the wall thickness and the weight to numbers significantly higher than before (and more than carbon). It doesn't stop corrosion, but it stopped the paper-thin heat treated bars that were common some years ago.

[Veloo]

And this.
https://twitter.com/AlanMyles8/status/1592582112489910274

[HenryA]

You could lay a hand towel over the bars to soak up the sweat. Pretty simple fix.

[benb]

It's not that you sweat a lot.. there are plenty of heavy sweating people that don't have this problem. I sweat enough to leave puddles on the floor if I ride the trainer even with a giant fan setup. But I have never seen any evidence my sweat corrodes anything on the bike and I don't even wear gloves on the trainer. About all I do is wipe the bike with a paper towel at the end of a workout.

It seems some people just have a different mix of minerals in their sweat that causes issues due to pH or whatever the content of the minerals is.

You see this in other areas too. There are people who have trouble destroying musical instruments from their sweat even though playing musical instruments is not really something you'd expect to sweat a lot.

Some people could buy a guitar and play it the rest of their life just changing the strings once a month. Other people destroy the strings in a day or two due to their sweat and also destroy the fretwork in a year... they end up having to get stainless steel frets.

For someone who has sweat like this... get carbon. Seriously. Any risk of Carbon breaking from falling over is WAY smaller than the risk of aluminum bars breaking when you corrode them this badly.

Also carbon bars especially if they are not weight weenie ones are WAY safer than people think. When you want to engineer a piece to be strong Carbon is very, very, very strong. There are two places the bike manufacturers really, really, really focus on making very strong when they are carbon. The big one is the fork, the second is the handlebars.

Anyone who has tried to cut up an old carbon handlebar to see how easy it would be for it to break can attest to this. You can cut most of the way through them and still not be able to bend/break them.

[ghammer]

I'd suggest carbon bars, but there's something else to consider there.

With aluminum bars I swap them 1x a year or 1x every 2 years, depending on the season. I'm a profuse sweater, but I don't dissolve materials. Someone here mentioned earlier that mineral combination is unique to each person so doesn't really matter the age, race, or gender.

I check my bars when I swap the tape. If there are salt deposits and/or small pits on the bar, I swap it. If not, I let it be. I also found the bars that fit me best, so I buy them in advance and store them at home (zipp SL 70 are my go-to).

With carbon bars, i'd be concerned that the "set and forget" mentality might lead to complacency. What do I mean? If you're 100% convinced you'll experience no corrosion, you might skip swapping the tape or just ignore the building salt. Depending on the person and riding conditions, you might then ruin the levers ratchet mechanisms (in the case of mechanical shifting), or destroy the electronic innards on wireless/electric shifting.

I've found that fullfinger summer gloves are very good at keeping the grip, limiting too much sweat, and cooling (yes COOLING) the hands on ultra hot days.

I live in the metro Boston area, and even though we have all seasons, the summers can be brutal, leading to damage caused by sweat.

In sum: swap bars 1x a year or 1x every 2 seasons if aluminum. If carbon, inspect the levers area frequently so you preserve from savage corrosion.