Enve G Series Gravel Handlebar

Costing a mighty £340, the new Enve G Series Gravel handlebar is a serious investment, but it's very light with more bump compliance than most other carbon handlebars, and a flared shape that suits adventurous riding. I love the feel and shape of this bar and it's certainly well suited to the new breed of gravel and adventure bikes.

• Pros: Flared drop, buzz damping, lightweight
• Cons: Price

The new handlebar is part of the US company's increased push into this market, along with its recent G Series 700C and 650B wheels. But what is a gravel bar? It's all about flare, and not the 70s kind: the flare of the drop.

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Flare drop handlebars have been getting popular with the rise of adventure and gravel riding. The simple idea is to provide a wider effective handlebar when you're in the drops, for more control when riding the rough stuff, whether loose gravel tracks or technical descents.

The degree of flare varies from brand to brand. Enve says it looked at every bar on the market and through its own testing settled on this shape. The bar measures 12cm wider in the drops than the hood centre-to-centre measurement. This is a 42cm handlebar on test and it measures 48cm in the drops. There are 44, 46 and 48cm (measured hoods centre-to-centre) as well.

Elsewhere, the tops are shaped for comfort with a slightly ovalised form, while the drops have regular round tubes for control and better grip. Other details include internal routing for electronic shifters, grippy material at the stem and brake hood areas, and a wider clamp area for lights and other gravel accessories, even clip-on extensions for the bikepackers.

Comfort is very good. I've been using this handlebar on my own Fairlight Cycles Secan for the past few months, where it replaced a regular road carbon Bontrager bar, and have ridden hundreds of miles of road and off-road trails, a mix of bridleways, byways and dirt tracks in all weathers and conditions.

Enve has worked its magic and expertise to produce a bar that, thanks to the layup of the carbon fibres, provides some vibration damping, tuned to the handlebar size to suit taller and smaller riders, and you do notice it when bashing along rough tracks. It's noticeably smoother feeling than the handlebar it replaced, superb for just helping to remove the tingly buzz on high-frequency bumps. Riding in the drops exaggerates the feeling, compared to gripping the hoods.

It's not like sticking a suspension fork on your bike, but it's comparable to dropping your tyre pressure a bit and is nice to have, especially on longer rides where fatigue can be a real issue.

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The full carbon fibre construction also ensures the weight is low: ours came in at 246g on our scales.

Although there's no lack of stiffness when giving it the beans, it's not waywardly flexy at all, it's not really for your 1,000-watt sprints – that's not in its design brief.

I'll admit I've been sceptical of flared drop handlebars, until now. Over this extended test period I've grown to like the shape of the Enve. It works well on the road and off-road, and it's easy to find a comfortable position in the drops.

On the road, the angled hoods shouldn't work, but they do enable you to flatten your arms and anchor your hands against the hoods for a reasonably aero position, great for bashing out the power on a transition stage between two sections of gravel or off-road.

Off-road is where it gets really tasty. You definitely have more control when sailing down fast descents, with the extra width producing slightly slower and calmer steering responses. There also feels to be a good amount of damping against bigger impacts as well, but thankfully it never feels unduly flexy.

The long drops also provide two hand positions, one at the end of the bar and the other pushed into the elbow of the bend. This is useful compared to the single position of most drops. I found the former good when riding steep tracks, and the latter ideal on flat and fast sections of trail or road.

The 80mm reach and 120mm drop are familiar numbers that lots of handlebar makers are using, and for good reason. It's a comfortable reach from the tops to the hoods and the drops aren't so far away that you're going to put your back out stretching for them.

The only drawback is the price, but it is Enve so perhaps nobody should be that surprised. It's not the most expensive handlebar road.cc has ever tested, that honour goes to the Ritchey MonoCurve Carbon integrated handlebar at £425, and it's closely followed by the PRO Vibe Aero Carbon handlebar at £300. 

If you like the idea of a flared drop handlebar but want a cheaper option, the recently reviewed Ritchey Comp ErgoMax handlebar costs just £52 and weighs 313g. You're not going to get the buzz damping of the Enve, and the shape isn't identical, but it goes some way to achieving the same results for a lot less lolly. 

Verdict

Not cheap but very fine handlebar with comfortable, versatile shape and buzz damping for adventure riding