That's shit...
So I started playing with my settings the other day, thinking about using my track bike to do some pedaling drills (speed, balance, TT position etc) on the rollers. And then after I loosened up the right extension I heard a "PONG", and this happened.
At first I thought the screw had been... eh, screwed. Turned out to be much worse. You'll see in the close-up picture the clamping mechanism of the brackets. The "lower" part (here the upper half since the bar assembly had been turned over) acted as the fastening device of both the arm pad and the extension.
During assembly, these two interfaces were fastened alternately, although not by intension but rather by the trial and error process of setting up the bars. Thus, after I loosened up the extension clamp, the alloy couldn't bear the huge tensile stress posed by the other clamp, and the thing just fucking gave.
Note that also, due to this "unique" design, you cannot really crank them both up (the bracket onto the base bar & the extension mount into the clamp) without torquing the screws to ridiculously high figures, for in essence, the two clamping mechanisms acted like two counter actions against each other; i.e.: when one of them is tightened up, it pulls the other loose. That's plainly stupid design flaw.
I could have also eased up on the screws, but since this was for track use, you don't want to take any chances. I have experienced my aerobars shifting in a kilo, just after sitting down in the back strait, floated the rest of the first lap, and started banging out of turn two in my second lap. I pulled up so hard I ended up being Floyd Landis. Not fun. No fucking fun when it's a kilo.
Now I wonder should this incidence be noted by the seller...
