Possibility of bending own handlebars...

does anyone know how bars are made?

to me they're just a piece of bent pipe that i should be able to tool up to make quite simply - or is it a much more involved proceess

is heat involved or is it just the bending of cold tubing - i want to make some up with my own bends - some extreme randonneur noodles and ultra deep drop track bends and low pro bull bars but with some tow in (chopped flopped maes always seem to tow out) and large flare north road / randonnuer - that kind of thing.

any idea what gauge / grade (4000 / 5000 /6000 grades) of alluminium - or should i be looking at steel ? 4130?

has anyone out there done this? i 'm hoping i can use a plumbers pipe beding machine as long as i can get the tools to get the radius's i want - or am i dreaming this is ever going to work out?

in fact i've not looked yet but do most bars use a series of constant radius bends or varying radius (i just imagine it being easier to get graded radius tools )

i'm going to experiment with bedning some cheap sakae road champ maes into rnadonneurs with a more extreme flare first and see where it goes from there

anyone any experience in this?

No experience of this per se but my two cents would be that re-bending aluminium bars that have already been formed could be asking for trouble from a strength perspective... ...same reason you don't re-space alu frames... keep us posted on progress

don't bend any thing thats custom butted

plumbers just warm copper and get one of those angle bender thingies and bend to 45 or 90 degrees should work similarly with steel / alu althougha damn sight tougher to bend
then you may need to anneal the steel to harden it

you got some old curtain rails you are looking to recycle !!

Apparently hippy does this all the time, just by sitting on them.

plumbers dicki do not warm 22mm or 15mm pipe before they pull bends on it,alu pipe is prolly not suitable for plumbers pipe benders cos it will crack and crease .speaking as a plumber ive thought of making a pair of bars out of 28mm but then thought of the weight and gave up on the idea.if you want to bend steel youll have to use electricians conduit benders

You would usually anneal the steel to make it more ductile and easier to work with, not to harden it.

You want a mandrel bender to do it properly, then you need the proper tubing, then you need the knowledge to do it, once you've dedicated the time and money on all of those, its probably the same kinda dosh and easier to just buy a pair.

I would have thought that it's a more complex process than just brute force... wouldn't it cause stress corrosion cracking if you just bent aluminium?

I know on sheldon's site he says you can respace (bend) steel frames but strongly discourages the respacing of aluminium.

Aluminium is much harder to work with and unless you have proper machinery, your going to have very slow progress.

I would imagine the 16 gauge steel would do the job, although it might be a tad heavy

i guess copper is soft enought to bend at room temp then ! ?

i always thought dipping steel in cold water after heating it made it more rigid ? maybe thats tempering or summat ! long time since my craft, design and technology O level grade c mind !!

i always thought dipping steel in cold water after heating it made it more rigid ? maybe thats tempering or summat !

Yeah absolutely, sometimes called quenching, it makes it stronger but more brittle. Its something to do with altering the molecular structure to something more crystalline I think.

All this talk about Benders made me think it was another Michael Jackson thread........

Aluminium needs to be annealed before bending to prevent it from work hardneing (this causes the metal to crack tear and weaken). An easy way of doing this is to rub some white soap on the metal then heat it with a gas and air torch until the soap goes brown. Leave the metal to cool to room temperature then bend away.

The easiest option to do get the shape you want would be to buy some bars which are close to the shape you desire and then modify them. Unless you have links with someone who deals with metal suppliers I think that you will find it hard to get a short length of metal for a decent price as most just can't be bothered to deal with one off customers with small orders.

listen cock, aluminium has no memory, it will crack and deform if you attempt to bend it back, or thry to re-shape it. it can and has been done, but i personally wouldn't trust it.

most alu is heat treated don't mess with it.

copper in non load bearing. so it can be manipulated, and is a lot softer.

My personal philosophy is "do not fuck with bits on your bike that are load bearing"

Hope that helps.

word!

you in a mood today Myrtle?

Wait....do you have to be in a mood to agree with me?

nope, i just totally stand by what i said earlier, and nhatt backed it up.
@diable, so cockoff:p

nope, i just totally stand by what i said earlier, and nhatt backed it up.
@diable, so let me fondle your cock:p

oooooh errr

thanks - for all the info. i'm guessing i'm hearing what i suspected (it was a bit of a pipe dream anyway) alluminium is too tricky to mess with and steel is going to be too heavy. i've done the odd modification of crash bent bars by getiing my foot in behind one drop and yanking on the other - i wouldn't do it again as a potential slipped disc isn't going to help the riding at all. i know an engineers shop round here i might ask just to put in a couple of msall kinks to widen the flair on some bars i have. or i'll have a bash myself with some of the cheapo items i've got - i'll keep you posted.

does anyone know where a i can get ranndoneurs with a backward (nitto noodle style ) sweep on the top and slighty larger sloping flair than say GB randonneurs - and possibly a deeper drop.

My personal philosophy is "do not fuck with bits on your bike that are load bearing"

Hope that helps.

Yeah!

Yeah absolutely, sometimes called quenching, it makes it stronger but more brittle. Its something to do with altering the molecular structure to something more crystalline I think.

Remembering my materials lectures from years ago....

Basically any metal has crystal structures in it and where these meet is where you have potential weakness points. By heating in the correct way it is possible to make single crystal components but I believe this is only used in the aircraft industry ... I forget the correct terminology and Pifko has my materials book.

Aside from weakening tubing etc, I would imagine it would be very difficult to ensure any bars you made were perfectly symmetrical in all planes. As the bars are an interaction point if you like, it would only take a mistake of a few mm for everything to feel 'wonky'.

Having said that, I would go for it! You don't learn anything without trying. Even if you use a heavy gauge bar to start with, I imagine it would teach you a lot about the techniques you would need to employ.

If you can find a shop with a computer controlled mandrel bender (I know there are engineering companies who offer the service; find them in the yellow pages) then they would be able to produce an accurate job and could advise on bar choices etc.

As a warning against heat treating too; be very careful or you'll end up with a brittle bar that is likely to fail suddenly. Steel, albeit heavier than alu, is more ductile and will at least start to bend rather than snap (dependent on exact material and treatment of course) If you're looking at bending tighter radii at home, steel would be my choice.

Anyway, I'd love to see some pictures of any attempts. I'll send you some of the wood bars I'm building in exchange.