Renthal Fatbar Carbon bar

Renthal’s wide carbon bar is here. After the original release of the Fatbar Lite Carbon I think a lot of people were a little disappointed that the bar was not available in a width over 740mm. Ten years ago 740mm was to most people ridiculously wide and 680mm was the perfect width. However, nowadays stems are getting shorter and bars are getting wider, as more and more people see the benefits of a wider handlebar. It’s not just your downhill riders who are opting for a 780mm bar either: enduro racers and riders are going wider, so having a lightweight wide bar is going to be ideal.

Bring on the new Fatbar Carbon: 780mm wide, uni-directional carbon construction and available in a number of rises from 10 to 40mm. Like most handlebars out there, the Fatbar Carbon has markers on it if you want to cut it down. I cut my set down to my preferred 760mm width. With the bars on a bike and all controlled up, I think they look really good. Nice, discreet, and with fairly neutral logos so I can’t see many issues with colour coordination. Plus if you put some extra cash in and buy Renthal’s Kevlar grips and stem, your front end will look ace.

When out riding the bar felt great, really stable, and I never felt unsupported. I haven’t really used carbon bars before and couldn’t see how there would be a massive difference from alloy apart from the weight. Well I was wrong: on a number of trails the bars felt that they took a lot of vibration out of the trail and made the ride so much smoother.