question to you and the group - and this is personal preference I understand - what’s your position on wide flare gravel bars? My Checkpoint I’m mostly riding road, this time of year it’s an hour to gravel, then 30-60 minutes having some fun, then an hour home. Winter its all road and my training bike.
Situation - short reach. The stock alloy bars (Bontrager GR Elite) on my Checkpoint SL6 are 44cm hoods and 52cm drops, with a 75mm reach. Pretty wide and I’m sitting up high enough to impact speed. Bigger issue I mentioned above to @grwoolf is the Checkpoint geo makes the reach feel cramped and I could use more reach. grwoolf has suggested going with another 20mm reach in the handlebars, which sounds reasonable, and Bontrager has some road bars I can pick up on Marketplace for 1/3 the price in ‘brand new removed from Checkpoint SL7’ condition. A little narrower at 42cm hoods (good for aero), and more importantly they have 93mm reach, for +18mm reach. Stock bars and these Pro IsoCore VR-CF carbon bars are external routed so worst case if I really wanted more control for a gravel event (I’m not competitive) then it would be an easy swap for the event. And more aero position for all my other riding.
Oh yeah. When I was working at a shop in the 90s, we used to fix up old beaters (Schwinn Varsities and 3-speeds and such), then take them to some fun trails that were nearby to see whose bike could last the longest off-road.
Some of my fondest off-road memories were from ripping a 1970’s red Schwinn with a Sturmey-Archer hub down this one steep chunky trail. It was surprisingly capable, along with the Varsity - long wheelbase, slack head angle and all that. Man, I loved that bike.
I switched out the stock bars on my checkpoint for some 40mm wide carbon bars (not sure on reach), but I’m very happy with them. I don’t feel like I am lacking any control with them being narrower and the lack of flare. If anything I’m tempted to go with a longer stem and 38 wide, but I like going fast.
But they are totally fine doing single track stuff like BWR AZ.
Thanks. My Trek LBS buddy was pushing me to go from 44 to 40, he is aero&26yrsold and fast as all get out on his Madone and now Giant with really narrow bars. His gravel bike is a Crockett and came with 42 bars that he upgraded to 38cm bars and no problems with steering or flare.
I hate 'em…IMO, this is one of those product trends where product managers say “well, this works for MTB, and gravel is dirt-lite, so it is also a good idea for gravel” and it just doesn’t work well. At least not for me and the type of gravel riding i do.
But I generally don’t like wide bars, period. If i ever was in a place again where owning a MTB made sense, I don’t know what I would do because MTB bars now are hilariously wide. I watch some of the World Cup MTB XCO races and the bikes just look horrifically uncomfortable. I literally could not ride with bars that wide.
I just swapped out my 40cm ENVE AR bars for some 38 alloy bars that I can clamp aerobars onto, and I love 'em. Worried that my 40’s are gonna feel too wide once I get past Unbound and those bars weren’t cheap!
Now, if you are doing bikepacking or some serious under-biking, then maybe some wide-flare bars on a gravel bike make sense…but for most gravel riding, I don’t see the point.
I agree, with one exception. On long/fast bumpy or sketchy descents, wide drops are really nice…but that’s probably what you’re considering serious under biking.
38s otoh. Damn. I’m not sure I would feel safe even on pristine tarmac with 38s. I’m sure it’s a learned skill though. Do you ever experience elbow soreness?
Some of the flared but aero and narrow bars seem like the best of all worlds. The fast part narrow on the tops, then that extra control on sketchy descents going into the drops.
I’m 5”8 but with rather wide shoulders (i think they measure around 46 or 48cm). Have been riding 38s for the past year and they’re my favourite. They measure 43cm in the drops so you have more control on the descents. They were like 20 euro from Rose (think theyre called the Rose Race Attack Aero).
For context, I’m 1.80 and ride a TCR M (54). My Revolt is also M. It has a 44 wide bar and 80mm stem stock, I replaced the handlebar and stem from the stock ones that came with the TCR. 42 road handlebar and 100mm stem. I didn’t see any penalty in agility, plus my position is way better and suitable for my terrain.
I didn’t want to spend money at that time, that’s why I use pieces that I had, although I’d love to put a Salsa Cowbell Salsa Cycles | Adventure by Bike as I miss a bit of flare.
I did the same and feel the same! Also, I’m 100% on the hoods, even when going 45+ mph down hill on loose gravel ending in a turn. I would literally cut off the drops if it were acceptable.
I thought I was “wrong” as I saw people saying “Downhill always on the drops”. I’m always on the hoods going down. Tryed the drops once or twice and didn’t like.
If you watch any pro CX, absolutely none of them descent in the drops. Neither do any if the good riders in my local races.
I’ve heard that with old-fashioned brakes, you didn’t have enough power on the tops for descending, but I don’t know if that’s the reason people keep saying you should.
I’ve got the Easton alx90s on my crockett, these are their in-between road and “gravel” bar with a little flare but not too much. If I hold up the stock bontrager bar the end of the drops just fits inside the alx ends so on my 44s they are basically a bar diameter wider on each side. I also like the shape of the drops way better. I was trying a carbon bar for vibration damping (I mean excuse to justify upgrade) so was pleasantly surprised when did improve that.
I know the flare has gone crazy on some bars figured I’d mention these as an in-between bar where you can go narrower on the hoods and still get a little extra width for stability in the drops.
Definitely normally a narrow bar person, modern mtb bike widths look like a kid jumped on their parents bike to me. Always used to cut my mtb and BMX bars down back in the day. But road for some reason I’ve always just defaulted to “right” so wasn’t interested in trying narrower when I upgraded last year.
Maybe it’s a personal thing but yeah descending on the tops for me is just too dodgy. Don’t really watch too much racing but for road and gravel I’ve seen almost all pros on the drops.
CX is different but that’s mostly lower speeds and far more technical than most gravel, which is where the tops excel. I don’t think the tops are wrong though, if it works for you.
I watch and participate in a lot of gravel and the drops are definitely the exception. Likely those that come from road like the drops and those that come from CX and XCO prefer the hoods.
Tyres let go at much lower speeds off road than on road and in a much more progressive way.
Its easier to learn when its ok to crash, remember when we were kids and we bounced. I wanted a MTB after I outgrew my 20" BMX, but my parents decided I needed a real bike so I got a 24" wheeled 5 speed road bike.I proceeded to learn the limits of grip and balance on that in my local park seeing how far I could lean over the corners on the grass and how steep a line I could drop into the bomb holes/chalk quarry in the middle of the park. 3 decades later I’m still reaping the rewards of learning to ride smooth and “feel” through the tyres.
