When I was 26, I would jokingly refer to my bike as the CWM (Cross Wind Missile). I'm not 26 anymore...

About Me

My name is Dean Russell and I raced road bikes and some track endurance in the 1990s. I stopped racing in 1999 when I was 26. After almost thirteen years of being a lazy slug I decided to put my sorry backside onto a bike seat and have another crack at racing. This blog chronicles my journey from being completely unfit and overweight to becoming one of the oldest Elite A grade riders in Queensland...and then slipping nicely back into Masters racing.

Sunday, 19 February 2017

Product Review: Cycles Fanatic Sprinter Aero Road Handlebars

Hopefully you have ended up here because you are looking for a review of carbon components sold by Cycle Fanatic USA. This is a link the their website:

http://www.cyclesfanatic.com

I had been searching for a long time online for a pair of carbon handlebars for my track bike that were quite deep, shallow and also had enough cut away / sweep that I didn't hit my wrists on them when sprinting. The Fanatic Sprinter Aero Road Handlebars looked like they may be exactly what I was looking for. This is a link to the product on the Cycles Fanatic Website:


The bars arrived a short time later and I was extremely disappointed. 

Firstly, I attempted to install the bars. The recommended torque rating was 6 nm. Using less than that with a torque wrench, the bars cracked. Obviously no quality there at all.

Secondly, I then noticed that the bars were clearly being sold as a Zipp 'knock off'. This was plainly obvious by the fact that the bars carried a 'legal disclaimer' sticker that indicated that Zipp were the manufacturer:


Thirdly, I contacted Cycles Fanatic USA twice by email and once by Facebook message, seeking a refund and my attempts to communicate have been ignored. When I purchased the bars initially they had communicated with me on that email address no problem at all.

My experience with these handlebars has been extremely negative and based on that, it is my opinion that prospective buyers should avoid Cycles Fanatic USA. 

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