[tugglesthegreat]

I’ve been riding my Arkose 3 for a few months now and raced some cross races during winter, after not having a road or cross bike for years – been riding MTBs.  Since having my new bike the bars have felt too narrow.  My bike is a medium Arkose and has 42cm drops.  I also don’t like the flat sections of the drops as I can’t seem to get a good position on them. 

Everything I’ve read seems to indicate I need them so my hands are inline with my shoulders or slighly wider if you ride cross or off road.  I’ve been looking on line but I can’t see that much choice with wider bars!

So I’m looking for some wider bars preferably 46cm, compact style with slight flare and aluminium – cheapish £30ish. 

Can anyone recommend some? 

Topic

[tugglesthegreat]

rutland wrote:

Some manufacturers, Deda for example, size their bars outside-to-outside. Whereas others, like Zipp, measure their bars center-to-center at the lever position.  

Zipp Service Course SL-70 are compact and have a 4-degree outsweep / flare and in size 44 would be slightly wider than size 46 Deda Zero-100 bars.

FWIW I have Deda and Zipp bars on my various bikes and, though they’re a bit over your budget, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them for CX.

Thanks for the advice. I’m a bit of a newbie when it comes to drop handlebars. I was looking at the FSA Omega Compact, but I was put off as they seemed to be only available in 44, but I now see that that is 44cm Centre-to-centre, so should be about the same as 46 in other manufaturers?!

I’m flexible on the price a little as I want to get the right ones for the job.

[rutland]

Some manufacturers, Deda for

Some manufacturers, Deda for example, size their bars outside-to-outside. Whereas others, like Zipp, measure their bars center-to-center at the lever position.  

Zipp Service Course SL-70 are compact and have a 4-degree outsweep / flare and in size 44 would be slightly wider than size 46 Deda Zero-100 bars.

FWIW I have Deda and Zipp bars on my various bikes and, though they’re a bit over your budget, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them for CX.

[. .]

I found the choice of 46cm

I found the choice of 46cm bars limited.  I ended up with some Easton EC70’s which I picked up in a sale for about £80.  They seem fully competent if unremarkable bars.  I see CRC have the EA70 for £30 at the mo.

[Author]

Replies