[pjkad]

I saw these things featured on Tour coverage and wonder if they make a difference.
http://www.bontrager.com/Road/Parts_and_Accessories/Handlebar_Accessories/5882.php
Anyone have experience/comments?

 

[40-ish]

Quick Demo at LBS

One of the sales guys at my LBS (really good store) took an al bar and dropped it on the hard/carpeted floor - lots of ringing noise as you'd expect. Took another one with the Buzz-Kill and dropped it - just a thunk. Then I saw them on the tour. I'll wait till they have some experience with them on the road and see what they think.

Don't know if they were the Al or the Brass version.

 

[johndengler]

I've been using them for several months and in my opinion they make a noticable difference. Much of the road vibration in my cheap bontrager bars seems to be absorbed and are now more comfortable. Also, since Trek is having their tour sale, they should be on sale at a bike shop that features treks. The cheaper set is like 6-7 dollars right now at my LBS because of the sale

 

[Marc]

I saw these things featured on Tour coverage and wonder if they make a difference.
http://www.bontrager.com/Road/Parts_and_Accessories/Handlebar_Accessories/5882.php
Anyone have experience/comments?

Methinks that just using some cheap corks would do a similar trick much cheaper...see the thread on General FMI

HTH
YMMV
TIA

 

[40-ish]

You would be correct for the demo

Methinks that just using some cheap corks would do a similar trick much cheaper...see the thread on General FMI

HTH
YMMV
TIA

As I think of it, an open handlebar is like a brass instrument. With both ends open, it will make quite a bit of sound. A better comparison would be to have both handlebars plugged for the demo. Since we care about road buzz and not cheap tricks, the question is, "Do they work as intended?" My shop is good and they don't recommend stuff until they have some actual time with them.

 

[Jesse D Smith]

I saw these things featured on Tour coverage and wonder if they make a difference.
http://www.bontrager.com/Road/Parts_and_Accessories/Handlebar_Accessories/5882.php
Anyone have experience/comments?

The saleman's demo was useless. When you're riding, your handlebar is clamped onto a stem, not dropping onto the floor competely unsupported with no handlebar tape and no bar tape end plugs. Marketing dudes are so creative in creating problems where none exist, then creating magic, overpriced solutions to the non-existant problems.

Road vibration has never caused me any suffering or hampered my riding in any way. If my hands hurt it's because I haven't ridden in a long time or I chose a broken stoney road. . Gel padded gloves, Gel padded shorts, gel padded handlebar tape, CF seatposts-all bought to take the harshness out of our ultralight CF saddles and 20mm tires jacked up to 130psi.
Now I'm not advocating we all go back to riding pennyfarthings with steel saddles and wool jodpers, but we've starting to strive to isolate ourselves from the experience instead of immersing ourselves in it.

Here a favorite quote from "The Rider" by Tim Krabbe"
"Velvet pillows, safari parks, sunglasses; people have become woolly mice. They still have bodies that can walk for five days and four nights through a desert of snow, without food, but they accept praise for having taken a one-hour bicycle ride. ‘Good for you’. Instead of expressing their gratitude for the rain by getting wet, people walk around with umbrellas."

End of rant. I'm going to go sleep on an anthill and commune with mother nature.

 

[Alpedhuez55]

I like to use a thick tape myselt. I use the Stella Azuri Techno Spounga(sic?). It is about twice as think as standard tape. It absorbs pleanty of virbration. I would guess the difference is slight at best with the buzz kill. Maybe it would help on an all aluminum set up.

THose Tech features seem to be an unpaid Trek commercial. I also saw them push the Buzz Kill on one of the shows on Team Disco on the Discovery Channel where they were seeing if they would help a rider who had broken his broked ride Paris-Roubaix.

 

[Howzitbroke]

The saleman's demo was useless. When you're riding, your handlebar is clamped onto a stem, not dropping onto the floor competely unsupported with no handlebar tape and no bar tape end plugs. Marketing dudes are so creative in creating problems where none exist, then creating magic, overpriced solutions to the non-existant problems.

Yup. I have often wondered how any vibration that travels up through the fork to the stem and into the bars is going to get through your hands to the "Harmonic Dampeners" and back to your hands nicely muted? I can't think of a better device for absorbing the small vibrations than flesh.

I think you are correct that many of these questions just wouldn't have weight or matter unless some guy came up with a solution where one really wasn't necessary.

 

[40-ish]

Nice Rant

Now I'm not advocating we all go back to riding pennyfarthings with steel saddles and wool jodpers, but we've starting to strive to isolate ourselves from the experience instead of immersing ourselves in it.

End of rant. I'm going to go sleep on an anthill and commune with mother nature.

As rants go, you get major style points - move over Dennis Miller. Thanks for keeping the forum interesting.

 

[terzo rene]

Who cares if they work? It's a great product name. I am guessing Zap had something to do with that.

 

[Jesse D Smith]

I like to use a thick tape myselt. I use the Stella Azuri Techno Spounga(sic?). It is about twice as think as standard tape. It absorbs pleanty of virbration. I would guess the difference is slight at best with the buzz kill. Maybe it would help on an all aluminum set up.

THose Tech features seem to be an unpaid Trek commercial. I also saw them push the Buzz Kill on one of the shows on Team Disco on the Discovery Channel where they were seeing if they would help a rider who had broken his broked ride Paris-Roubaix.

I like that tape too. I have long fingers. I'd have to use two rolls of Cinelli to get it thick enough so my fingers would wrap around the bar. I only have to use a single wrap of this. I've had it on a year and it shows no sign of wear, never gets slippery and stretches just enough while wrapping. I wish more places carried it.

 

[Road cyclist]

In use

I saw these things featured on Tour coverage and wonder if they make a difference.
http://www.bontrager.com/Road/Parts_and_Accessories/Handlebar_Accessories/5882.php
Anyone have experience/comments?

I have been using them. I am not convinced they make a difference with regular
road buzz. I think that one may need electronic monitoring equipment to really see a
damping improvement. I think I may do this one day, get an acceleration transducer
and circuit and attach it to my handlebars. You think Bontrager should have done this
already, maybe they don't want to publish the small incremental improvement.
I think the handlebar drop test is useless, but the LBS people do it anyway.
There is a valid vibration principle behind this invention, it wasn't created for cycling.
Finally, brass being heavier than alum should provide more dampening. I don't think
6 -12 dollars is too much to conduct an experiment, its probably the only thing on my
cycle that will never wear out.

 

[cmg]

they're a pretty color

I have been using them. I am not convinced they make a difference with regular
road buzz. I think that one may need electronic monitoring equipment to really see a
damping improvement. I think I may do this one day, get an acceleration transducer
and circuit and attach it to my handlebars. You think Bontrager should have done this
already, maybe they don't want to publish the small incremental improvement.
I think the handlebar drop test is useless, but the LBS people do it anyway.
There is a valid vibration principle behind this invention, it wasn't created for cycling.
Finally, brass being heavier than alum should provide more dampening. I don't think
6 -12 dollars is too much to conduct an experiment, its probably the only thing on my
cycle that will never wear out.

i've been using them for about a month, haven't noticed any road buzz elimination. I'm on the lighter version though. they look pretty and match the color of the frame.

 

[Road cyclist]

Go for brass

i've been using them for about a month, haven't noticed any road buzz elimination. I'm on the lighter version though. they look pretty and match the color of the frame.

I hear you. I feel I am getting scammed, but I will conduct my road buzz experiment before the summer ends and post my results. I have a MSEE, I think I can come up with a
transducer circuit. But my reply to you is to subsitute the suspended alum for brass.
Brass being heavier Should? work better in theory. Any scrap brass in a rod shape can
be cut off and used.

 

[Marc]

. But my reply to you is to subsitute the suspended alum for brass.
Brass being heavier Should? work better in theory. Any scrap brass in a rod shape can
be cut off and used.

If you want a heavier metal use lead shot-alot denser; just be sure to protect yourself and seal it adequately.

 

[Mark McM]

I saw these things featured on Tour coverage and wonder if they make a difference.

It seems to me that encasing a large length of the handlebar in a visco-elastic sheath should provide far more vibration damping than a small visco-elastic chunk only at the end. Any of the thicker cork/composite handlebar tapes could provide such a visco-elastic - with the added advantage of actually isolating the user from the handlebar itself.

 

[Squint]

Why not fill the hollow interior of bars with expanding polyurethane foam if you're going to do anything at all?

 

[jaxpaw]

IMHO no difference

Saturday the guy I was riding with was raving about them so I made an effort to pay far more attention than I normally would as to how my hands were feeling during our ride. Went out and bought a pair and then tried them today. I realize this is far from scientific but I just couldn't feel a difference, even though I wanted to believe my LBS "they really work". Oh well, they have helped me out with some problems in the past but to me these things are just a gimmick.

 

[Number9]

These things are more likely to do harm rather than good. Randomly adding mass and damping material might help in some scenarios, but can also hurt since not all handlebar systems, in situ, have the same materials, resonant frequencies, etc... Since, it's not clear at which frequencies the vibrations are the most problematic, I would argue that these things are useless, and since they add mass and cost money - they are worse than useless. No one-size-fits-all solution here. Looks like the marketing guys prevailed over the physicists at Bontrager...

 

[Jesse D Smith]

I tried them

I saw these things featured on Tour coverage and wonder if they make a difference.
http://www.bontrager.com/Road/Parts_and_Accessories/Handlebar_Accessories/5882.php
Anyone have experience/comments?

After reading the other lukewarm reviews, I decided to give them a shot only slightly altering the installation procedure. I crammed one up my butt to see if it damped the nasty road vibrations that get transferred to my backside. I have to say, they totally took my mind off of any road vibrations.