ITM Handlebars - Multiple Failures
Handlebar_Dave
Posts: 9
Has anyone else managed to break their ITM super 330 handlebars. I have now managed it 3 times on 2 different bikes. The failures have all been sudden and result in a complete shearing off of the bar at the stem. After the second occurnace (both on the same Winter training bike) I contacted a mechanic who assured me that this bar had very good operating experience and that it must be a fault in the stem. I changed the bar and stem to a more robust oversize bar and 4 bolt stem. However, reassured by the mechanic, I left my summer bike unchanged.
On Friday, the bars on the summer bike snapped and the broken half fell into the wheel, writing off the front wheel and front forks
and also breaking my arm in the subsequent fall .
I am interested in
a) Letting people know of this potential for ITM handlebar failure
b) Getting any similar stories.
On Friday, the bars on the summer bike snapped and the broken half fell into the wheel, writing off the front wheel and front forks
and also breaking my arm in the subsequent fall .I am interested in
a) Letting people know of this potential for ITM handlebar failure
b) Getting any similar stories.
0
Posts
I will also follow up with letters to the major cycling magazines (CW, CP etc) but I cannot guarantee publication.
I wonder why you chose that forum name...
Let us know how ITM respond
I've heard of bar failiures throughout cycling, especially the 90's fad for silly lightweight MTBs, but less so nowadays.
One thing to consider; over tightening the stem onto the bar can contribute to failiure. ITM do specify torque settings to try & prevent such problems, while you have had 3 bars of the same make & model break, on 2 bikes, with 2 different stems, then there would have to be a query here about "user error" resulting in premature failiure.
It will be interesting to see ITM's reply to your problem, have you offered to send them the latest broken bar for them to inspect? There is always a chance that you have had 3 bars with a manufacturing problem resulting in weakness - unlikely, but could happen.
Bottom line I suppose would be to change brands of bar & stem completley, and place strength above weight, although the 330's are not really sold based upon their lightweight - I have them because I'm a none competitve rider who builds bikes to a budget, so looks for VFM.
Worth noting that when this happend the first time, the cycle shop took the bike back and repaired the damage free of charge and also replaced the apparently undamaged front forks. Maybe they were worried about further action!
The bike shop in question is very well respected and whose name appears in more than one posting on this forum. If this was an error by them, then I would expect to see many examples of similar failures, but so far I have had no positives for ITM bars.
Regarding blaming the product, I don't actually recall blaming the product, I named it to be helpful to other cyclists an maybe save a life! I am deliberately not blaming anyone at the moment, just gathering useful feedback!
<h6>What\'s the point of going out? We\'re just going to end up back here anyway</h6>
How can I ask this without causing offence, ok here goes!
Are you built like a whippet or are you a bit of a big lad I only ask as I use the same bars and have never had a problem but it would be good to know if I am comparing like-with-like.
Cheers,
MC.
My current weight is 13st 10lbs and has been static for a few years now.
I am a "big" lad, and have no problems with the bars.
I do wonder if Dave has an LBS that hasn't heard of torque settings though!!!
Re Millenium bars, they are much lighter and I know that ITM Millenium stems have a torque setting during installation, I've got one fitted. It isn't fair to say user error is responsible for the majority of bar failiures, but it is up there with accident damage as a common cause of bar failiure. Probably commoner than manufacturing faults.
Just to clarify, I am referring to a National Mail Order Bike Shop here that most cyclists will have heard of. I am deliberately not mentioning their name as I wish to have ongoing cordial relations with them to establish the root cause in the hope of feeding back any useful information to other cyclists if necessary.
If it turns out to be my riding style at fault, so much the better for everyone else
thanks for all your useful input, keep it coming and I will also feed back the final outcome
Good luck anyway !
No, there is nothing obvious on the stem. When this happened last time, I specifically checked the inside radius of the stem for rough bits that could have acted as stress raisers. Nothing obvious that time and nothing obvious from a visual check this time.
I bet the manufacturer will tell you that you are supposed to replace the bars every couple of year...
They cracked at the stem very suddenly and I went down. I was taken in an ambulance to emergency. No broken bones but my knee in particular is pretty sore and I can barely walk.
Did anyone have any outcome from contacting ITM about these failures. Just this thread alone suggests more than a coincidence.
No, but I can imagine there are many road bikes out there with bars 10-12 years old and much older.
Handlebars breaking suddenly is not a common occurrence and finding this thread with anecdotes of the same model bars and other similar bars from that period is of interest.
I can see the humour in a zombie thread being revived but it wasn’t so funny laying up with serious injuries and just trying to get some information.
I know because I'd just bought a bike for my 50th birthday and it came built up with an ITM carbon fork. I think the bike shop bought a job lot of stuff when ITM folded. Hopefully my forks don't.
you can still buy ITM branded bars now. (might be a different company though)
From https://www.bikeraceinfo.com/travel/ita ... aly09.html
Which is what I remember; I'd bought the bike in Sept 2007 and soon afterwards read about their demise. Maybe somebody bought the brand?
Apparently so; this from a US cycling forum:
"Italmanubri (ITM) was one of the Italian greats, but that original iteration of the company shuttered and liquidated in ‘08. The brand is now owned by a Taiwan company."
Then looks like a relaunch in 2013 : "The most dominant handlebar and stem brand of the 1990's, ITM is back! Resurrected by the former general manager of the ITM parent company, Italian industry veteran Luigi Seghezzi is staying true to the past success of "Italmanubri", a legend of cycling"
They have a facebook page and website:
https://www.facebook.com/pg/ITMItaly/ab ... e_internal
http://itm.it/itm/en/company/company-profile/