This is a little tutorial on how to make your own carbon bar end “plugs”. I put plugs in quotations because these are epoxied into place (how often do you remove your bar end plugs anyway?).
This is a really easy project to do and fun for the whole family! Well not really. Unless your whole family likes messing around with JB Weld and carbon fiber dust in the pursuit to lose about 5 grams and to pimp your ride.
The concept is that you don’t need to have your bar tape go into your bars, just tape it off down there and have these lightweight sexy carbon weave bar caps doing the trick. For the ultra weight weenie who doesn’t think he needs bar plugs or blockers, you do. I took a hunk of organic material out of my thigh once because I went for a short test ride on my CX bike just to see how the derailleur was shifting, I saw a little trail, crashed and my thigh jammed into my open bars. Ouch.
Anyway, I got my carbon fiber plate from Dragonplate.com. You don’t need too thick of stuff, because there’s really no stress placed on this item. I had a circle template, found the right size circle (1” is pretty close or 15/16) Then I just shaped it down into a pretty good circle on a bench grinder (Dremel would work but not as well) and JB welded it onto my bars of choice.
Plastic cheapo bar plugs are light at about 5-6 grams a pair. Mine weigh .8 grams (maybe 1 gram when you add in the JB weld). And they look better.
Next time, on the +1lap DIY channel, I’ll show you how I made my carbon topcap, and saved myself about $50 bones.
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