About ten years ago, 35mm bars and stems showed up in a big way. Not just 3.2mm bigger than the totally acceptable 31.8 we were using at the time, but they arrived at the exact same time that super duper wide 840 mm handlebars were becoming a trend.
At the same time, all-white bikes with white saddles and white grips… was also a thing. And the industry was just starting to go bananas for internal cable routing. Definitely an awkward few teenage years, and clearly, the bike industry still has that barbed wire bicep tattoo to remind itself of this time. If you need some obvious proof, see our sudden need for all internal everything.
Before we dive in, I want to give a huge shoutout to Jenson USA, who made this carbon handlebar comparison possible by sponsoring the video. Jenson USA is the largest online retailer of mountain bikes, parts, and accessories. Clicking any of the Jenson USA links in this post helps support my channel, and any purchases through these links contribute significantly to our ability to create content like this review. A sincere thank you to everyone who supports us this way, and again – special thanks to Jenson USA for backing this video!
Editor’s Note:
These articles are adapted by Savannah from Jeff Kendall-Weed’s YouTube videos for riders who prefer reading over watching. They’re written in Jeff’s first-person voice to stay true to the style and storytelling of the original content.
The Evolution of Handlebar Technology
As you might assume, the first few years of 35 mm handlebars resulted in handlebars that were horrendously stiff. With manufacturers assuming civilians would be attacking innocent trails with mile wide handlebars, compliance landed square in the trashcan next to subtlety. Sadly, bars were more inspired by the term barbell, and were seemingly built to be as stiff as possible. I have memories of how atrocious my first pair of 35 mm carbon bars were. Ufff. About as bad as today’s aluminum 35mm bars. Friends don’t let friends ride 35mm aluminum bars.
Luckily, we’ve come a long way. Today, 31.8mm aluminum bars are still a fantastic choice. Decent compliance, great price, and generally they are very strong. But on faster trails, with higher vibration frequencies, I have to wonder if modern 35 mm carbon handlebars will indeed be an improvement?
An Important Note Before We Begin
Is your bike sick? Does it have a case of upgrade-itus? Where seemingly the only solution can be buying some sweet new bling? Of all the things you can upgrade – from oil slick chain ring bolts, to fancy frame protector stickers, to dice valve caps, the choices are endless. I want to put this out there, right in the intro, that you do not need new handlebars. Your money is better spent on good tires. Or dialing in your frames geo, or your suspension. If you have seemingly everything else, then handlebars are a great final item to complete an otherwise perfect bicycle.
If you do have issues with numb hands, I think solutions could be found using different thickness grips, handlebar roll angle, different handlebar bend, or different gloves. I have had to deal with numb hands on occasion, and it is terrible. But I found it is more of a combination of gloves, grips, and fit more than it is the handlebar itself.
The Test Process
I tend to notice arm pump and numb hands more on faster trails with lots of breaking bumps, so I’m going to focus this test on the fastest, most ridden, most braking bumped trail in the northern hemisphere: A-Line.
I am 175 pounds, which means I am probably heavier than what most bike brands assume the average rider will be. But I know for a fact, the industry is extremely optimistic, and most male riders are probably around the US national average, around 200 pounds. Heavier riders, or riders who prefer even wider bars, will notice compliance more than I will, but I was still noticing a bit between these options.
I enjoy handlebar widths between 760 and 770 mm, and the bars in this test are cut within 10mm of each other. As grips often have a difference of 5mm in their own end thickness, this width range is a real world acceptable thing. I tried to get all bars in 40mm of rise, and most of the bars have 8 degree back sweep, and a 5 degree up sweep. Notable exceptions are PNW Components The Loam bar, which has a 10 degree back sweep, and Santa Cruz Reserve, which doesn’t publish its up sweep, but is noticeably flatter than the rest.
Swapping out bars between laps adds a chunk of time to the day’s list of to-dos, but making sure the handlebars are properly fastened is absolutely essential to safety. I used the PRO Torque Wrench to make each install as seamless as possible. And, for the sake of consistency, I used the same pair of ODI Pro Grips on all of the bars.
I’ve wanted to do this test since summer 2023. I asked Enve for some handlebars, and they kindly obliged. My first run Whistler bike park with some M9 downhill bars (31.8) went well – about as normal as State Farm Jake. They felt better than my aluminum 31.8 bars, so I was happy. But after a couple runs, I threw on the M7 handlebar. Holy baloney Batman, the M7 bars were hugely better than the M9!!! This one experiment absolutely turned me into a believer of 35 mm carbon handlebars, as they do have more compliance. When it comes to carbon bars, the larger 35mm interface gives manufacturers more space to create a more forgiving bar.
I’m not going to focus on weight in this test, but I did notice that the heavier bars actually felt noticeably better on the trial.
This leads us to the question… are all handlebars created equal? (Spoiler Alert: Nope!)
The Contenders
Race Face Era
The first bar of the test, this reminds me of my 21st birthday! I actually had prior experience riding this very bike with this same handlebar at Whistler bike park this summer – so I decided to keep it on the bike in order to begin the test with as few variables as possible.
The Race Face Era bar is indeed very well-made, and is very comfortable. Just like half of American men, it comes precut, with a different compliance tune on the 760 option as compared to the 780 or 800 versions. Mine are 780 mm cut down to 770 and with a 40mm rise.
Just as they did back in early summer, the Era bars felt at home on A-Line’s high speed and endless breaking holes. When I first tested the bars, I didn’t have much feedback other than, “yeah these are pretty good at the end of a couple laps.” After testing 7 bars, I have to say, the Race Face bars do compare directly to the most comfortable bars of the day. Something I did not notice until this test was over was that while the Race Face bars are very compliant, they do not instill the most confidence. There is substantial flex in the control direction as well as the vibration. It’s not terrible, but when going to other bars, it is something I noticed.
Full disclosure, Race Face gifted me these handlebars earlier this year when I attended their media event. I subsequently and very intentionally installed them on my rigid Enduro bike because they do ride quite nicely.
OneUp E35
Enter the OneUp E35. E not just because it’s the best vowel, but because there is a small hole in the bars to allow for e-bike controls. But that’s a minor detail in the story of the E35 carbon bar. These have a very unique shape, with the outside of the bar being extremely ovalized. Clearly, it’s intended that in the side to side, control and turning direction, the goal is max stiffness, but in the vertical plane, quite a bit of forgiveness. I was dreaming about this very handlebar shape back in 2016, and even consulted with a bike brand about having them made, but it was a much bigger project than I could swallow.
OneUp was nice enough to send me a gifted box of parts last year, which included these handlebars. I have installed these on several bikes on my own and have always appreciated them.
Out of all the bars here, the OneUp most surprised me. It was similarly plush to Race Face in the bomb holes. However, I definitely had more confidence on takeoffs, and pumping through berms, with the OneUp bar. This makes me think their marketing claims of vertical compliance, but lateral rigidity, do have some truth… Is it a night and day difference compared to Race Face? No, it is not. But there is a subtle difference that I certainly appreciated.
It does take me a bit to find the right bar roll angle with OneUp, as the weird shaping can visually throw me off, but at the end of the test, these were among the most comfortable bars I used.
They are also tied with PNW Components as the lowest priced handlebar. PNW is also very comfortable, and has significantly more backsweep. Ultimately, I preferred the bend of the PNW a little more, and hope to one day do a final showdown between the two, as I felt the comfort on both options were among the best in the test.
Santa Cruz Reserve 35
The Santa Cruz Reserve 35 bar comes stock on the Santa Cruz Hightower, a loaner bike that I’ve had in for testing. To be perfectly clear, I absolutely hated this handlebar feel on both Hightowers, and came into the test thinking these bars would be hugely worse than the aftermarket options.
Pair with thicker grips and you’ve got yourself a winner.
I made both Hightowers more comfortable by installing the Renthal FatBars bars and ODI grips. I was a lot happier with that cockpit than the stock Reserve bars. But I don’t know how much of the improvement is the bar versus the grips, as I changed both at the same time – so this test will spill the proverbial beans on bars vs grips.
I dropped into A-Line thinking I would feel an immediate stinging in my hands like I felt back home. Turns out, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be! As I got further down the hill, I definitely had more hand and finger fatigue, as well as more forearm pump, than I had with either Race Face or OneUp. But it wasn’t nearly as bad as I remember them being!
My suspicion is that the thin little Santa Cruz grips just don’t work for me. So take this little bit of advice: if your bike isn’t feeling comfortable – try new grips before you get new handlebars.
But it’s also worth mentioning that the bar’s up sweep is much less than any else in the test. Santa Cruz does not publish a number for the up sweep. All of the other brands are 5 degrees, which feels great, and Enve is 4 degrees, which feels great too. While Santa Cruz does not publish a number, the bars still do have a very small amount of up sweep, but it’s minimal. I have a hunch that this is a factor of why I disliked these bars so much.
After two full laps on A-Line, I realized with my ODI grips on the Santa Cruz bars, they were certainly not as comfortable as OneUp or even Race Face, but they were still very much acceptable. For what the bars lacked in subtle compliance, they made up for in control stiffness, and I had zero vagueness in the steering – these were certainly more bomber than some other options.
If you already have these handlebars on your bike, try grips, tires, or even CushCore before swapping them off.
I did a total of 4 runs with the Santa Cruz bars: two at the end of the first day, and two more to warm up and begin the second day.
Salsa Guide 40
Salsa is the house brand of QBP (Quality Bicycle Products), the largest distributor in the USA for bikes. They do not sell consumer-direct, but they do own Salsa.
Sometimes average is perfectly fine.
With less of a marketing budget, the Salsa Guide 40 is a bit of a dark horse. I bought these on my own, at some discounted pricing, mostly due to the 40mm rise, but also just because I was plain old curious. Salsa was a super cool aftermarket brand during the 90s, and today, they are mostly known as a house brand for QBP. Would Salsa’s offering actually compete with the cool kids?
I ran these bars on a couple of bikes in 2024, and have certainly enjoyed them on the trail. With their standard sweep measurements, there isn’t much of interest to report before they hit the trail.
As I dropped into yet more A-Line runs, the Salsa Guide handlebar felt more comfortable than the Santa Cruz Reserve 35s, but still less comfortable than the best performers. OneUp, Enve, and Race Face were all a bit softer on the hands. Not a huge amount, but subtly so.
The Salsa Guide compliance was comparable to the Renthal FatBar, but steering precision wasn’t quite as confident. They are a fine handlebar, but I don’t see much of a reason to buy these over the other options here.
Enve M7
These are the original bars that got me stoked on 35 mm carbon trail handlebars in the first place. Enve was cool enough to supply these bars at no charge, so a big thanks to them. Due to the traditional round shaping of the M7, I did not expect the Enve handlebars to feel anywhere as good as they did.
The level of comfort was similar to the Race Face Era, and at times, better. However, what I wasn’t expecting was that the level of steering control was definitely better than the Race Face. I am very surprised that the OneUp bars feel so similar.
OneUp visually is quite different from Enve, but the feel on the trail is so very close. I would be happy with either option – though I do prefer the 40mm rise of the Enve over the 35mm rise of the OneUp, and Enve’s bend felt better to me.
My hunch is that OneUp was slightly more comfortable and slightly more confidence inspiring than even the Enve, but the difference was so incredibly close that I would absolutely take either. Visually, the Enve bars look more traditional.
Big kudos to Enve for such a well made bar!
Renthal FatBar 35
Renthal FatBar 35 has felt great on three different mountain bikes thus far in 2024. I bought these bars myself, though at some discounted industry pricing.
Seeing Renthal bars on many famous athletes’ bikes, both on moto and MTB, I was just curious how they’d feel. The 40mm of rise was also a home run – I’m on the higher end of the size medium bike spectrum, and often like the feel of 40mm bars on today’s short head tube bikes.
On the Ibis Ripley and especially the older Santa Cruz Hightower, the Renthal bars were exactly what I needed to have a good cockpit position.
The bend of the Renthal has a degree less backsweep than most of the other brands. While that’s a talking point in a video like this, I think it’s still enough sweep that anyone would adapt to it pretty quickly.
When I first get on the Renthal bars, the less sweep does feel more aggressive, and inspires me to pretend I’m Jett Lawrence for a minute.
In terms of minimizing vibration and adding compliance, I could tell that the Renthal was not as comfortable as the top three performers, but certainly not bad. These were definitely more comfortable than the Santa Cruz bars.
The steering precision was very good, and coupled with less sweep, the Renthal bars were the most aggressive and inspiring bars in the test.
PNW Components The Loam
PNW’s awkwardly named “The Loam” handlebar was a surprise of this test. PNW used to sponsor me, but when sales slowed a few years back, they chose to not renew our arrangement. That said, I still use their parts often, and frequently recommend them to friends who need new bits.
That extra two degrees of backsweep might not sound like much, but your wrists will write thank-you notes. Proof that sometimes more is actually more.
When I asked, PNW was cool enough to give me these bars, so thanks to them for that! I’ve ridden PNW bars off and on since 2017 or 2018. I met their founder, Aaron Kerson, when racing about 20 years ago, and when I started creating a lot of videos for YouTube, they came on as an early sponsor.
The most immediately noticeable aspect of the Loam bar was the extra backsweep. Most other bars are 8 degrees, but these are a full 10 degrees. The more relaxed sweep created a very comfortable posture, and hands-down had the most unique feel.
For me, this was the most comfortable bar bend for my body type, bike set up and riding style.
Comfort in the wash board, breaking bumps and holes was surprisingly good – maybe slightly less forgiveness than OneUp or Enve, but on par with Race Face Era, and better than Salsa, Renthal, or Santa Cruz. Confidence when steering and controlling the bike was fantastic. But that bend just feels great… I wish other brands would offer a bit more sweep!
The Real Talk
Let’s wrap this up with a take hotter than sriracha.
After riding all these different bars, I feel there is little reason beyond fit or upgrade-itus to switch from one carbon handlebar to another. If your bike already has even a pretty rigid set of 35 mm carbon bars, if you’re looking for more comfort, you’d be better served by considering an insert in your front wheel, switching to a more durable tire that can be used with less pressure, or simply by trying different grips.
Suspension upgrades also help a lot, but remember, the newest forks need a good 10-12 hours of hard trail riding before they break in and open up. I’m really stoked on the new Fox GripX units, but they definitely do take a while to break in.
There are definitely some aluminum 31.8 bars that are far cheaper, and also ride quite well. The aluminum bars are stronger, less sensitive to dumb accidents, or teenage antics. Weight is very close – less than 100 grams, or ¼ pound – between 31.8 aluminum and 35mm carbon. Cost is roughly $100 more for Carbon.
Final Thoughts
So is it worth it? Well, at the end of the day, it’s not about what bars are on your bike – it’s about getting out and riding your bike. So please, proceed accordingly. Perhaps plan an extra riding trip rather than splurging on bars – or just get the bars. Life is short. And if you decide to enjoy your short life to the fullest, please do so via my links below… sorry not sorry!
Key Takeaways:
- Best Overall Comfort: OneUp E35 and Enve M7 (tied),
with Race Face Era and PNW The Loam close behind - Best Steering Precision: Santa Cruz Reserve 35, Renthal FatBar 35
- Best Value: PNW The Loam, OneUp E35
Peace & Wheelies!
As always, thanks to Jenson USA for making it possible to live the dream. Your purchase helps support the channel, and I genuinely appreciate it.
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Extra thanks to Endura for supplying me with a few of my favorite riding kits, which you can find over here.
And thanks to LMNT for keeping my hydrated with plenty of electrolytes! Get a free sample pack with your purchase here.
6 comments
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Been using m7 bars for years and really like them. One thing I can say is wheels, tires and fork (and your frame) probably have more to do with feedback transmission than bars. I noticed this when I swapped a cheap 35mm alloy bar out for a oneup carbon bar on a bike I was using. I noticed such a small change that it really made me rethink my assumptions about carbon bars!
Yeah man, I agree 100%, and at 1:05 in the video I mention that carbon bars are the LAST upgrade to consider! Tires are the most significant, and best bang for the buck. Cush Core is even more noticeable than the bars alone. Thanks for the note!
[…] adoption reshaping every Mountain Bike Handlebar Buying Guide and review. Testing on trails like Whistler’s A-Line has helped improve handlebar […]
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