omgar

I've never seen any like this before. Did these come from the factory like this? Not sure how someone would accomplish this if it wasn't factory made. Anyhow, they're pretty cool looking!

illwafer

those perforations on the ends are cool.

puchfinnland

it has to be original, its impossible to do it after, looks cool, dont let drillium dude see them!

ColonelJLloyd 

Interesting. The SR Royal seatpost had similar looking, shallow drillings (or casting, not sure) on the seatpost. See this recent thread.

omgar

Interesting. Would that make this an SR Royal handlebar then?

ColonelJLloyd 

I don't believe it is. The engravings on that bar are later than the ones used on the SR Royal seatposts, stems, cranks and handlebars (at least the first versions of the SR Royal stuff).

Here's the engraving on an SR Royal seatpost I have on a bike.

Citoyen du Monde

Better yet is the matching stem which is drilled out internally and has an opening on the top through which the drilling was achieved.

JohnDThompson 

Yes, the fluting on my Royal seat post has tool marks that indicated it was milled, not cast. Sakae Ringyo did designate a "Super Light" group using drillium and millium on "Royal" branded seatposts, chainrings, and stems, and the aforementioned "World Champion" bars part of this:



The catalog pages above show a "Royal" stem with flutes milled on the sides of the extension, but some stems were treated differently. Here's one of my "Royal" stems in which the extension was drilled out and titanium hardware provided:



Other versions of the Royal stem

omgar

Wow, very cool. It did come with an SR Royal stem but unfortunately it doesn't look like it's the "Super Light" version.

ScottRyder 

Agreed, those bars are wonderful .. I love the SR Royal line, here's one on my '81 Fuji Pro:





Scott

callig

I have an SR World Custom handlebar with the same drilled out covering but black or dark grey

old's'cool

Cool maybe, but the inner set of holes is not in a great place from a stress concentration point of view. Give some thought as to why the sleeve is there in the first place. I'm not saying it's going to fail, but the inner holes appreciably weaken the design.

ColonelJLloyd 

And why is that?

old's'cool

Assuming you're not pulling my leg, and you understand the concepts of shear and torque...

The stress in the handlebar material is a combination of shear and torque. Taking a very simplistic view, the shear (from the rider pulling up or pushing down on the bar) is pretty much constant along the whole length of the bar. As it happens, shear is not a big concern in handlbars; torque dominates the stress situation, as explained below.
The bigger concern is torque (or "moment", as it would formally be called in this type of problem). Torque is the product of the force the rider is exerting (up or down) and the distance from the point of exertion. The centre of the bar is the furthest from the point of exertion, so the centre of the bar is where the torque, and hence stress, are the highest. That is why alloy bars typically have a sleeve or integral thicker section right at the centre. Placing holes in the sleeve at that location drastically undermines its purpose.

ScottRyder 

old's' cool, no disrespect intended, I do agree with you in principle. But is it enough to warrant concern? My gut feeling says no, that's it's a wonderful marketing tool for the visual or weight weenies but it reality the other dangers of cycling extend way beyond the drilled out sleeves of this handlebar. I for one would love to find a set!

Cheers,

Scott

old's'cool

No, I wouldn't be concerned from a safety point of view. The probable failure mode would be fatigue, which would normally give enough warning if you're paying any attention that you'd retire the bar before it became a safety hazard. But to me, the "drilled" design is inelegant, from an engineering point of view, because it shortens the fatigue life of the handlebar. To be clear, I doubt the outer holes make any appreciable difference, but the inner ones do, since they're so close to the point of maximum torque.

sttlesks

Those are cool. I just bought these at goodwill today, looks like I have the heavier world custom version

Londonsworld 

SR extra super light series. Good stuff! I always wanted the fluted stem.