First impressions....Well, I got my first try on carbon parts. I have got to say I've had kinda an aversion to them because of the price point. I just can't see the advantage to carbon parts for the little bit of weight gain for the big jump in cha-ching $$ , till now
(and still only if they are 50% off)
I found a super deal on the 08' monkey lite carbon bars and 08' EA70 stem OK, ya they are 2 year old versions, but come on, have they really done much different since?
probably not. I run a pretty short stem on the Voodoo in a 70mm length with a slight rise making it really lucky I found this one, and at a good price.
So, I got them all mounted after weighing them, and there is a 1/2 way decent weight savings. Again, probably not worth hundreds of dollars but for what I got the pair, it's a nice bonus
. The look is pretty snazzy too and I'm not one for all that bling,
but they are cool....
So now let's get into actual function. But what can you say about handle bars? I mean really, what can you say...?
"they steer the bike, they seem to work", other pretty basic stuff but one thing I never thought I'd be saying about bars or a stem is that these actually do make riding a good bit more enjoyable because they actually do seem to minimize some of the trail vibrations, ya, .. they do, it's real and you CAN feel it.
I did cut them down and if anyone ever cautioned you on being careful trying this you really should listen. I thankfully have some experience cutting pipes, tubes and such so I whipped out my little Dremil with the abrasive cutting bit and lightly circled the thing with many passes, I still got a minor "chip" in the tube at the end when the scrap broke off, but not bad enough to worry about. If I were to do it again I probably would slip a pipe or something inside to support the cut off so it wouldn't droop and brake off at the end.. Live and learn
. The other thing I took to heart with the carbon bars was torquing specs. I researched and made sure that when I applied the torque wrench to the bolts I had everything set perfectly. After getting done and applying proper pressure to achive specified torque and feeling how much it took to get to those ratings I know I would have WAY over torqued them had I gone and done it to "feel" like I normally would have done with aluminum or steel parts.
Riding with these on the bike sure is a pleasure, I was also riding first run on full tubeless tires and a new rear shock all at the same time as the new stem-bars combo, and the whole bike was just riding super sweet, Best ever I can honestly say,
and there is no question in my mind that the new Easton products bolted on the front were a big bonus to it. After many rides I can, with full confidence, state that the bars and probably the stem contributed to a much more comfortable ride. There is and obvious vibration damping with them with out them feeling soft or flexy. I haven't really wacked them on anything yet so I can't really report on their toughness or resistance to the dreaded carbon cracking but so far so good. I'll just try and not smash them into trees and rocks for now, though with my riding ablities it's bound to happen at some point in the future.
at this time
I'll give the set a 4 out of 5, pretty damn good but at full price, I still wouldn't bother, if you can find them on sale for a hefty reduction in price, jump on it, especially if your a weight weenie
I'll post pictures soon...
