#Ritchey kyote on one OG bars handlebar snap break failure

[tracksterman]

The new bars, a set of Ritchey Kyotes, are now on the Scandal. The numbers come up similar to my old bars, but more initial fore-sweep and a slightly lower rise mean I'll need a new stem to get the right position. They're also mentally wide compared to the old bars, certainly more than I want/need, so I'll be moving the grips and levers in and out then cutting off the excess when I find the sweet spot.

The old bars were On One OGs (v2) that'd been in use since summer 2020, with 6655km on them. The right section came off in my hand while performing a slow speed hop up onto the pavement on my way to the local railway station. Given I would've been hooning down rocky Dales tracks later in the day I feel I had a lucky escape. There was no sensation of snapping when the bar broke; it felt more akin to twisting off a piece of plasticine. Very odd. No cracks, creaking or sign of imminent failure that I was aware of. I did go down hard on that side of the bars about a year ago after losing it on a patch of ice, so maybe that initiated a gradual failure. It's worth noting the break didn't occur at a point that was subjected to clamping forces from the stem or controls. The 90 degree crack in the picture above was on the underside of the bars.

Would I consider buying another set of OGs or other PX/On One bars? Probably, yeah, but I'd perhaps be a bit more rigorous about replacing them after a crash, and/or retire them from use earlier (three years seems a nice round number).