Thomson Carbon Dirt Drop Handlebar

Thomson's Carbon Dirt Drop bar is light and stiff, but for me the drop position – which on a bar like this is much more about control than aerodynamics – is a bit too low.

Like most things Thomson, this is a very nicely made handlebar. It's made from Toray carbon fibre and uses 'tailor-made Nano Epoxy Resin for very high impact resistance', which will please you when you're binning it on a loose gravel corner, although as it's £230 you'll probably be hoping you stay rubber side down.

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The bar is pretty light at 294g for the 44cm width that I tested; it's also available in a wider 46cm width that's about 10g heavier. It's internally routed with ports for hoses and shifter cables on opposite sides, and you can use it with a Di2 bar-end junction box too. There's a textured section where the levers sit to give them a firm grip on the bar when tightened.

Shape-wise, it's quite long on the tops, with a reasonably sharp transition to the hoods. It's designed to be 31.8mm diameter for as long as possible along the top, and that gives you bigger than average real estate for GPS computers and bar bag straps and lights and the like. It also means it's a bigger bar to hold there, which I preferred, but I do have enormous hands.

The drops are a 25-degree flare, which is about what I'd want, and the 90mm reach to the hoods is a bit more than I'm used to, which would probably make me dial back the stem length by 10mm to keep my usual position; the reach on my normal gravel bar, by comparison, is 76mm.

The drop to the bottom position on this bar is 130mm, and I'd say that's a bit too much for this type of bar. To put that into perspective, Salsa's Cowchipper has a 116mm drop and Ritchey's WCS Venturemax 102mm. The Venturemax is my go-to bar on a gravel bike, and the lower position is mostly for comfort and control. Let's face it, on an endurance geometry bike, with a 44cm bar with a 25-degree flare, you're not going to be that aero however big the drop.

> 13 of the best drop handlebars – how to buy the perfect bars

If you're genuinely racing the gravels and you want a lower position to hunker down into then this might do the job, but it you're concerned enough about aerodynamics for that to be the case then you'll probably be speccing a narrower, less flared road bar, and sacrificing a bit of the extra control a gravel bar gives you for a nudge of extra speed.

The deeper drop doesn't really affect my ability to reach the levers for control on steep or technical stuff, although if you have smaller hands than me then the levers are marginally further away.

> How to make your bike more comfortable – check out our 14 tips

I got a position I was pretty happy with in the end by angling the bar so that the drops were slightly north of horizontal (don't tell the rule nazis), and fitting the levers quite high, at the top of the textured mounting section, to shorten the reach. The long 31.8mm section on the tops makes the bar pretty stiff, which is good for control, but means it's not the most comfortable; it benefits from a nice plush bar tape over the top.

> 7 of the widest gravel bike handlebars you can buy: broad bars for bikepackers and gravel grinders

You can spend a lot more on carbon gravel bars, for example the Enve G-Series is £360, though the carbon version of the Venturemax is just £20 more at £250. Both are significantly lighter, and the Enve that we tested is more comfortable, with a less aggressive drop shape. If you're looking for extra stiffness and a more aggressive drop position, though, the Thomson might be just the ticket.

Overall, I've been getting on pretty well with the Dirt Drop Carbon bar, but given the choice between this and my alloy Ritchey WCS VentureMax for mixed surface riding I'd definitely go with the latter. It's a better shape for off-road control, it's more comfortable and there's only about 50g in it weight-wise… and you’d save a stick of cash. 

Verdict

Light and stiff gravel bar for good control, if you like a deep drop