Handlebars have long been set with a standard (ish) 6-9 degree back sweep and 0-5 degree upsweep, variations in width lessen or increase the feel of these dimensions and 3T have stepped away from them completely to give a new feel to handlebar shape. Carbon bars tend to be more supple on the hands and definitely save a few grams on a build.
The shape may not be to everyones cup of tea but they could offer some advantages over current handlebars and may give more options to riders who can’t get their positioning quite right with ‘normal’ bars.
These Extendo Ltd Carbon bars are a feathery 185g in their standard 740mm width, nice and light for some bars indeed. Looking into the angles a bit more is where they get interesting. The 12 degree rearward sweeping outer sections of the handlebars are set in a 3mm eccentric orientation to the clamping zone, put simply this means that the bars are only bent in one direction and rotating them in the confines of the stem gives a variety of different positions. That clamping zone has a rough texture finish to make sure your bars won’t rotate accidentally and the markings make it easy to position your bars precisely.
I have been riding a BMC Speedfox 29er for a month or so and have found the Large frame quite big for me (6′ 1″) and I think I may have cured the problem with these bars. For the first ride I have set them up with set facing slightly rearward and the bike feels totally different, there may be some adjustments to be made and I may flip the stem over to give a more aggresive body position but roll the bars further back to maintain comfort and control. I’ll keep you posted on how I get on with these but an interesting experiment is a-foot!
Check them out on the Gear site.
