Profile Carbon riser bar from cerca 1997

[ultrazenith]

While sorting through some bits for my sale thread, I rediscovered my old Profile carbon riser bar. Bought around xmas 1997 if I remember correctly, I've owned this bar for 16 years now. It has seen moderate XC use, albeit with long periods in storage while other life events seemed more important than biking, without problems, but last year I decided to finally retire it and fit a metal bar just to have peace of mind. I discovered some wear to the resin coating due to the plastic washers that grip shifters have, and two very small cracks in the resin elsewhere.

Weighing a whopping 280 g, it certainly seems built for strength, and I recall it came with what seemed (at the time) to be a ludicrously long guarantee (5 or 10 yrs?).

Sadly I've not been able to find out much about this bar on the web - does anybody else know anything about these, or perhaps somebody else out there owns one too?

 

[BertR00t]

I have a pair in the shed that were on my Zaskar for 14 years. The warranty was lifetime and they had built in bungs in the bars though mine came loose and I relived them. Great pair of bars and very comfortable. The lacquer came off mine a little round where controls were fitted and also where the stem went. Loved mine and not seen often.

Also used to run them with clear grips so you could see the Profile writing.

 

[ultrazenith]

Good to hear somebody else who has one of these bars. One of the alu bungs on my bar has started to come away slightly - I wonder if Profile would honour the lifetime guarantee? :mrgreen: I can only assume the bar was hugely over-built in order to come with a lifetime guarantee, although I'd expect the guarantee to exclude over-tightened shifters, lever and stems. When I bought the bar, however, there was no advice given about not overtightening things that clamp onto it. And I have no idea how to check for damage due to overtightening But, according to info on the web from users / reviewer, these bars have an alu core, which presumably would mean the bar would sag rather than violently snap off in the event that the carbon part fractured?

 

[Baulz]

I used one for years then cut it in half when done with it. There is in fact an aluminum core.