On Thursday, January 11, 2018 at 6:10:19 PM UTC, Frank Krygowski wrote:

And it raises the question: Why would someone choose to manufacture or
to buy a _stainless_ steel handlebar? What would be the practical
advantage over chromed steel?

- Frank Krygowski

Dumb question, especially from an American. I used to be a hotrodder (I turned old Bentley saloons into sports cars) and I remember the British hotrodders of humbler cars recoiling in horror from examples of American chrome plating.

The answer to your question, dear Franki-boy, is that stainless steel is rustproof and chrome-plating, unless expensively layered on sequential copper and nickel deposits, generally is not rustproof. A single pinhole in the chrome and you've wasted your money. That in turn makes for very expensive preparation of the steel before plating, if it is to be done right. Stainless can actually be cheaper. BTW, once copper and nickel have been deposited, there is no need for chrome, because nickel is rustproof and polishes up beautiful. Bentleys and Rolls, back in the days when they were sold to people of taste, had no chrome bling, just polished nickel.

Also, and I am very surprised that someone who claims to be a superannuated "professor" of engineering doesn't know this, chrome plating often raises stresses in materials. I, for one, would never in a million years drive a car with chrome plated suspension parts, or have a chrome-plated handlebar on my bike.

Andre Jute
Why are there so many know-it-all idiots in cycling?