handlebar FAIL

guy on phone: "hi, the handlebars on my bike broke."

me: "what kind of bike is it?"

guy: "its an old trek touring bike."

me: "did you crash the bike?"

guy: "nope. i was just riding along (mechanics commonly refer to this phenomena as JRA- the most-cited cause of catastrophic failure amongst bicycle laymen) and they broke! i'm really lucky i didn't get hurt, actually."

me: "did you buy the bike used? do you know if the bike has ever been crashed?"

guy: "i've had it forever, its from the 70's. i've probably had it for 20 years!"

me: "metal can fatigue or get stressed over time. especially if its been damaged. we probably have something that will work for a replacement."

guy: "do you have any really cheap used bars? like $5?",

me: "so the risk of buying used parts is that you never know where they came from, or if they've been crashed, or how reliable they might be over time. sure, a used handlebar that isn't obviously bent is probably fine to use, but you always run the risk of there being catastrophic failure, like what happened to you. are you sure you wanna shop around for used $5 handlebars?"

guy: "hmmm good point."

me: "just bring it in and we'll see what we can do."

guy: "ok thanks, bye."