I'm looking to upgrade to a lightweight bar but I absolutely love my Ergon grips and wouldn't consider riding without them. My riding style is mainly long distance cross country - 60/100km Enduro type stuff but I do like to take the downs (as much as you get in the SE) at a fair pace. I'm finding the 650mm bar I currently use just a little too narrow and I'd like to move to something like a 680mm for a bit more control at speed.
The Crank Bro Cobalt 11 XC riser looks like an option at 680mm, ~ £100 & claimed weight of 160g. The Easton Monkey light bars XC riser also seem to be a good option at 685mm, ~£100 and around 185g - but I can't seem to find any 2011 bars for sale at the mo....
Any one got good / bad experiences of these bars? Can I run them with barends?
Anything else out there that people can recommend?
Ergon do some little expander plugs to reinforce lightweight bars. These might help your options if you fear crushing bars with grip lockrings.
FWIW I use EA70 flat bars. Wide, quite light and fine with clamping grips or bar-ends.
If you look on the easton site
http://www.eastoncycling.com/en-us/mountain/products/bars/ec70-xc-riser-335
There are installation instructions at the bottom. Page 4 says what bars you can use.
Interesting that it also says don't clamp lights on the bend either. could be tight getting the lamp clamp right next to the stem.
oh... and it says 155g for the riser. Not sure if that's right thought.
Ah - many thanks. I hadn't spotted that Installation Instructions tab.
It seems that they've revamped the bars for 2011 and the claimed weight on the site is 155g. However, I can't find anyone selling the 2011 bars yet not any review articles that have actually weight it so I guess the jury is out until someone can verify the weight.
my extralite carbon risers are just under 100 grams and havt been fine with ergons
If it helps, I've been running Ergon grips on Easton carbon bars for years (on both bikes). Absolutely no problems with this combination, although I always use a torque wrench for mounting grips / brakes shifters.
Be carefull. I crushed one end of a pair of FSA carbon risers using Ergons. Wasn't using anywhere near the recommended 6NM torque either. I'd stick to alloy risers. I've got 685mm Easton EA70s at the moment and they are really good.
I`ve used USE low rise carbon bars with ergons OK, I think the bars are reinforced at the ends for bar end use so were OK. The bars are about £70 if I recall eg http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=2740
but be prepared for CRC next day maybe delivery (still waiting 4 days on for a next day delivery....)