I agree with this. I learned that when i store my bike in the garage in humidity i ruined bars, but when i store my bike inside with ac, i didnt have a problem. In the garage my bars never dried out…always were saturated and corrosion accelerated
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Ok, got it. Thought this over and suggest that you try Lizzard Skins bar tape. It’s very high quality and much more ‘rubbery’ than others I’ve used.
Before taping the bars, clean thoroughly with Windex. After it’s fully dry, next pre-wrap with a layer of high-quality, double-thick electricians tape, starting from the top near where the bar tape will end to just below the levers. Electricians tape is more costly, but higher durability and more impervious.
Hope this helps.
This is a great point. I live in the Midwest, in the US, and gets very humid here in the summer. I’ve been running alloy bars for the last 14 years (not the same bars!) and have never seen any corrosion. My bike stays in the house, in my office. There’s always air moving, be it from a ceiling fan, AC, or heat. In the winter, when the bike’s on the trainer, it gets wiped down with a micro fiber towel after each ride. The fans that blow on me during the ride are turned and blow on the bike for about 20 minutes after the ride just to help prevent sweat going somewhere it shouldn’t.
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Not that you meant this, but my probably is different here, it’s isolated to the clamp area and impacts a small area, strongly.
I’m in agreement that the flush may be part of the problem. It may remove some of the salt from sweat, but at the same time is is adding way more water that isn’t likely to fully dry out. Its a bit like riding the bike in the rain everyday.
My choice of Neubaums cloth tape is very unpopular in the EC world. But it breathes and 13 years on, no corrosion on a Nitto/RH Maes Parallel handlebar (noting that there are many causes). Those bars also have a 5 year warranty, FWIW.
This is why I wondered if it’s a torque issue.
Carbon bars will solve this.
I had roughly the same problem, poked holes in alu bars (mainly on the road bike) through salty build ups under the tape at the far end of the flat bar section (i.e. resting on the hoods), killed 2 bars over 2 seasons (never happened to be before), changed to a carbon handlebar and went trouble free. Now I have switched back to aluminium (because of a shape I really love and can’t find in carbon) and use higher standard bar tape (Prologo) pulled real tight and replace every 4 months. So far so good, but for how long?
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