Originally Posted by
Psimet2001
Wow. How times have changed. There was a point in time where this place would absolutely have sided on the aluminum bars side.
My input - FWIW.
Every time I used to go and look at weights the nice alloy bars were lighter. Maybe that's changed in the last couple of years? I'm not talking stem and bar integrated systems. Just regular ol bars you put in stem clamps. Regardless you can get a really nice and light alloy bar that is well shaped with newer hydroforming and then shot peened for a fraction of what a comparable carbon bar is.
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What I was told, ymmv, is that some sort of either CEN, CPSC or other safety guideline body made newer (mid 2000s or so?) minimum requirements such that effectively made it much more difficult for alloy bars to compete any longer with CF bars in weight. Eg. I had a pair of some 3T Zepp XLs back in 2003 (which were pretty big - one site lists them with 100mm reach and 170mm drop) and came in at 215g.