Breathegood

I'm currently putting together parts for an upcomming build and want to do it right the first time. I'm a believer in carbon bars from my experience with road bikes, but I think they may be overkill on a CX bike that will actually get used like a CX bike and not a commuter.

I'm currently running Bonti RaceXlites on my road bike and love them. I'll use the same on my upcomming build if appropriate, but I don't have a problem using aluminum if it is truelly the better choice. Comfort is more important to me than weight, so please keep the characteristics of carbon in mind when making a response.

Andy_K 

I don't think the bumps you find on a CX course are generally the type that can be hidden by carbon bars. Generally they require elbows. On the other hand, carbon bars probably aren't worse than aluminum in that respect. There's also this: https://www.bustedcarbon.com/search/label/cyclocross I do notice, though, that the "cyclocross" tag turns up a fair amount of non-carbon carnage too.

rithem

pro's generally don't use them in my observation ... Rapha Focus team bike ... no carbon bar or stem on JPow's rig.

Breathegood

Thanks for the link. That was fun. I think I'll stick to aluminum bars and let the tires and elbows provide damping.

eddubal

Good choice. There's two parts that I'm not interested in being carbon: handlebars and seatpost. I bent some aluminum flat bars several years ago pretty bad, and I've heard plenty of horror stories about both, and sharp and pointy near the boys definitely isn't my idea of fun. I'll take a bent bar over a broken bar any day.

DinoShepherd

Ritchey WCS carbon. Two season. Serious abuse. No problem. YMMV.

Loose Chain

This is classic anecdotal evidence. CF failures are sudden and dramatic and catastrophic. You will not know you have a problem until you face plant on the steering tube while gripping two pieces of useless carbon in your hands.

fietsbob

Got away, with out falling on them .. for 2 seasons, replace before the 3rd ..

DinoShepherd

This is classic anecdotal evidence.

Actually, its classic rhetoric. Or just being a drama queen. Sometimes its hard to tell.

ljsense

Generally, I would have said nah, go with alloy, but then I popped on a NOS set of Zipp SLs for alloy prices and didn't have anywhere to put them but my CX rebuild, so I'm in that carbon CX handlebar boat. On the flip side, this build has a steel steer tube, and my old bike had a carbon steer tube. Maybe on the actuarial table I'm a wash.

If carbon is going to randomly explode as some fear it will, I'd rather have a break in my handlebars than my steer tube. A handlebar at least has some redundancy: there's a good chance only half of it will break off. And a lot of CX bikes have carbon steer tubes. Also a lot of them have carbon seat posts, and that seems like maybe the worst place to put carbon if you really think it's going to shatter on you.

Andy_K 

I've seen people finish a race without a saddle. It doesn't look fun.