Are carbon bars worth it?

I currently have a set of Race Face Evolve bars on my (hardtail) bike. I’m happy with them, but wondering if carbon bars are better?

I can get a set of Race Face Sixc carbon bars for £45 (Promo code PAT10 until the 12PM 19th), but don’t know if it would be worth changing.

The only big(?) difference between them that I can see in numbers is they are nearly 100g lighter.

Do carbon bars feel different? Has anyone used these bars? Am I pissing into the wind and heading onto the slippery slope of weight weenieism?

I like my Easton ones and think they are softer on you wrists compared to aluminium. 100g is not insignificant and £45 sounds a decent price so I would if I were you. 😉

They are not really any better but I still have sixC on all my bikes just because the look good and are strong for their weight. If you are happy with 730mm wide then those are a bargain. The sixC are a really good shape and don’t have the horrible tacky manky gold like the renthal I also looked at.

Eastons (EC70 flat) are nice and flexy, I have switched to Santa Cruz branded ones and they are stiffer.

You’re saving about 1/3rd of the component weight, if you did that every time you replaced a component you’d have a fairly light bike fairly soon.

I imagine the other perceived benefits of carbon bars are fairly marginal though.

100g is about as heavy as 33 Maltese’s. Just to put that in perspective.

I’d take good alu over cheap carbon anyday so it’s more about the bar and it’s properties. People treat carbon like it’s one thing, it’s more what the maker/designer craft it into. Strong, stiff, light, flexible etc.

Sixc is very good carbon though.

As someone said, if you’re happy with the 730mm width then go for it OP.

Personally I love the solid, damped feel of a good carbon bar (Sixc is my favourite).

I like mine.

They were a present, not sure what to expect.
They do feel different, definitely a little more comfortable using the same grips.
It’s not huge, but it’s there.

I don’t think I’d buy myself a pair, but they are nice things to have.

I was always sceptical of the whole vibration dampening thing people mentioned surrounding carbon bars.

Recently I rode a weekend with some aluminium bars, albeit a lot of riding over the weekend but I badly broke my wrist last year and it caused me loads of pain. Put the carbon bars back on, no pain when riding again.

So, from my test sample, it does seem to make a difference to my long suffering wrist.

100g is about as heavy as 33 Maltese’s. Just to put that in perspective.

Yep, or a new born kitten.

I’m totally undecided 🙂

The RF stuff is good quality and that’s a fantastic price.

I do believe that wide bars are better though.
730mm is too narrow if you’re above 165cm in my opinion.

After many different trials, I happened upon some non-oversize. low-rise carbon Easton’s for my rigid SS. The smaller O/D & additional bend seems to give them a bit more flex, which was what I was after, but comfy grips make a big difference too.

I’m quite happy with mine (on-one knuckleball, 777mm, hard), lighter and you can definitely perceive a difference between them and the aluminium bars they replaced (and not just a huge chunk of weight).

Worth it as an upgrade, depend how much £45 is worth to you, if I was 18 and skint, probably not worth it, in a cushy office job and all the bills paid, maybe. I’d probably not get them unless it was for a new bike or there was something wrong with my old ones, they’re not that different.

My EC90SL are incredibly stiff, too much for long spins when coupled with XMM140’s.

V.light though.

carbon takes some the buzz out of the ride, I find them better but wouldn’t go cheap

100g is about as heavy as 33 Maltese’s. Just to put that in perspective.

but there’s not that many places you can easily shave 100g and if you’re getting a carbon bar at a good price the £ per g is better than many of the others.

Yes…

Got a bargain on some Easton EC70 bars about 18 months ago. They replaced same size and rise Easton Alloy bars, straight swap of grips and levers.

I do seem to get less wrist ache after longer rides, there’s not a huge difference in feel, just not as much joint battering vibration.

Got me convinced – still too tight to pay stupid money. Achy wrists is preferable to an empty wallet 🙂 I’d recommend to go for something expensive on sale rather than something cheap.

If you shave a load of Maltesers and put them into an aluminium bar, it feels just like a carbon one.

I gained two pounds.
Delicious.

I’ve never weighed 33 of these myself…

Using the power of Maths, I weighed just one in order to come up with my perspective comment 🙂

Ah, OK.

You don’t know what that is in Rolos, do you?

I hate all these new standards.

You don’t know what that is in Rolos, do you?

Can’t help with the Rolo scale, But…It’s about 5 Mars Bar Fun Size tho!!

Right, I’ve got the kitchen scales out.

50g = 1 crumpet (uncooked).

1 new born kitten
2 crumpets (uncooked)
…
5 mars fun size
…
33 maltese[r]s
…
100 grammes of coke (0 hookers)

Have recently ditched some Thomson carbon bars they wouldn’t stay put even in an X4 stem. Replaced them with Fatboy Lites which haven’t budged. The price was almost identical

The Thomsons were 200g the Renthals are 260

The Thomsons did actually feel quite good in a stiff-plastic kind of way but the Renthals are fine for me

Isn’t a poo about 100g ? Always go before a ride, you don’t want excess baggage

Just googled it , apparently it’s 123g so a dump is better than carbon bars

They’re cheap cos they’re 730mm which is just not wide enough for today’s width sensitive consumers. So if you can live with the shame of a bar at least 3cm smaller than your mates then you’re laughing.

Just have a poo first.

If I can have a poo and eat 33 malteasers and still be 100g lighter, its a win win win! I have sixc carbon bars for no other reason than I wanted them, not even sure I notice a difference, but I do eat a lot more malteasers on every ride now.

is the sweep, rise, width etc right for you? Don’t buy them just because they are cheap.

Back sweep makes the biggest difference to me (have broken both wrists so am sensitive). Carbon does make a difference though but it is variable as some bars are stiffer than others. Sweep is just more important IMO.

edhornby – Member

Just googled it , apparently it’s 123g so a dump is better than carbon bars

Mass centralisation innit, bars are further from the roll centre than a poo is. Assuming the poo is still inside the rider, at least, and not in his shoes.

I bought exactly those bars. My theory was i’ll see how they look before i fit them and if they feel really narrow i will send them back. Free 365 returns at CRC.

Running 785 just now but sometimes feel overly wide. If i try them and eventually decide they are to narrow i reckon you can get not far off that price on ebay. Maybe lose 10 or 15 quid on them.

Cheers OP! Good find. Just bought some for my Mrs, to replace her relatively heavy 650mm wide bars.

Now she can have her Maltesers and eat them. Anyone know the average content of a bag? How about a box?

With some Nukeproof pedals that’ll save almost 400g off her bike, for £75. Well ahead of the £1 per g rule.

The £1 per gramm doesn’t seem to apply to lower end bikes. Once you get to deore/x5 level equipped bikes with reasonable own branded finishing kits and reasonable forks then it gets harder.

Nice bars thanks for the heads up.

I think they are, especially after a long day out. That’s saving about the same as the bag of dark chocolate McVitie’s Digestives nibbles that’s on my desk now I’ve eaten a few.

had two carbon bars, easton carbon 711mm which are now on my son’s bike and kinesis R750 which were replaced by spank spike vibrocore 800mm. gave up on weight saving with bars

Feeling any difference in materials after going through a suspension fork and a big soft tyre has got to be in the princess and the pea territory hasn’t it?

I have used carbon and alu bars on my rigid bike whilst also using 1.9 semi slick tyres pumped up hard for summer use and can’t say I felt any difference.

The only benefit I saw was weight as I was using very light carbon bars.
They were also cheap and I never trusted them so have switch to Ritchey WCS alu bars which still only weight 220 grams anyway.

Kerley +1.

I have two MTB’s, both FS and alu bars on one, carbon on the other (Crank bros and Easton).

I feel no difference, and ain’t bothered about weight tbh. Don’t think I’d bother again.