Near the end of my regular morning commute to work something odd happened. I was remounting after carrying the bike up some steps when the left side of the handlebar just gave way!

No warning, just cracked open at the point it meets the stem and swayed drunkenly away. If it wasn’t for the extra cable strap holding on a special front attachment it would have completely dropped off.

That’s scary… what might have happened if I was on a busy road at the time does not bear thinking about.

Metal fatigue in aluminium… apparently it can happen after just a couple of years! Why are they selling us S*** like this without a health warning?

The nice cycle guys at work fixed me up with a new bar in time to get home again. But I am looking harder at aluminium components from now on.