Wide, flared gravel bars

Posted by: Endur-Bro

I’m looking at building an all-road bike in the future. Maybe I should spec gravel bars on it instead of regular road bars? But then where do I stop; do I swap Di2 Ultegra Disc for GRX? Might as well get the gravel frame? 

From what I can tell gravels flare out at the horns compared to a regular road bar. Anything else?

Depends.  Is this an N+1 bike and are you coming at it as a road bike that can do light duty connector trails, or a trail bike that occasionally sees some road.

I have a dedicated road bike, and wanted to expand out to more FSRs and light duty trails.  CX/Gravel with hydro discs, 1X drivetrain, and then swapped out to a flare bar after a couple of weeks for better leverage descending (like heading down to twin bridges).  I'll dump the 1X once this drivetrain wears out, and that GRX gruppo is really nice.

Posted by: Couch_Surfer

Posted by: Endur-Bro

I’m looking at building an all-road bike in the future. Maybe I should spec gravel bars on it instead of regular road bars? But then where do I stop; do I swap Di2 Ultegra Disc for GRX? Might as well get the gravel frame? 

From what I can tell gravels flare out at the horns compared to a regular road bar. Anything else?

Depends.  Is this an N+1 bike and are you coming at it as a road bike that can do light duty connector trails, or a trail bike that occasionally sees some road.

I have a dedicated road bike, and wanted to expand out to more FSRs and light duty trails.  CX/Gravel with hydro discs, 1X drivetrain, and then swapped out to a flare bar after a couple of weeks for better leverage descending (like heading down to twin bridges).  I'll dump the 1X once this drivetrain wears out, and that GRX gruppo is really nice.

I'm running the Shimano 105 drivetrain and disc brakes on my gravel bike. Has been fine, no issues. Running two rings up front, don't think I'm going to convert to 1x.

Posted by: Brocklanders

I'm running the Shimano 105 drivetrain and disc brakes on my gravel bike. Has been fine, no issues. Running two rings up front, don't think I'm going to convert to 1x.

I think two rings is the way to go. My 1X experience is that I’m constantly feeling slightly under or over geared which is an annoyance on a nice stretch.

Posted by: Couch_Surfer

Posted by: Brocklanders

I'm running the Shimano 105 drivetrain and disc brakes on my gravel bike. Has been fine, no issues. Running two rings up front, don't think I'm going to convert to 1x.

I think two rings is the way to go. My 1X experience is that I’m constantly feeling slightly under or over geared which is an annoyance on a nice stretch.

46/30 upfront..I'm in the big ring 75% of the time. Think I would be spinning out with the 1x since I do ride it on pavement somewhat also.

Posted by: Couch_Surfer

Posted by: Endur-Bro

I’m looking at building an all-road bike in the future. Maybe I should spec gravel bars on it instead of regular road bars? But then where do I stop; do I swap Di2 Ultegra Disc for GRX? Might as well get the gravel frame?

From what I can tell gravels flare out at the horns compared to a regular road bar. Anything else?

Depends. Is this an N+1 bike and are you coming at it as a road bike that can do light duty connector trails, or a trail bike that occasionally sees some road.

I have a dedicated road bike, and wanted to expand out to more FSRs and light duty trails. CX/Gravel with hydro discs, 1X drivetrain, and then swapped out to a flare bar after a couple of weeks for better leverage descending (like heading down to twin bridges). I'll dump the 1X once this drivetrain wears out, and that GRX gruppo is really nice.

Likely going to replace my carbon road bike with an All-Road bike. It would be a road bike that can see some light duty trails/gravel and pack a load while running full wrap fenders.

GRX is Ultegra 👌🏽 I’m thinking GRX shifters might be needed for the gravel bars? But I could be wrong as I really no shit about fuck.  

Current bike is race inspired from yesteryear. Cantis where 25s need to be deflated to install/remove a wheel, QRs, horsecock stem, no fender ability.

It’s served myself well; but I’m really looking at something different. More comfortable, greater usage range, longer FC with shorter stem, full wrap fender, panniers even.

i‘m also gonna add an 2x allroad bike to my 1x gravel bike, waiting for the standert pfadfinder to be available again. i‘d go grx di2 because of the higher brake lever pivot. mechanical grx is more like ultegra. next up replacing the gravel bike with a next gen geometry gravel bike with longer toptube and shorter stem, probably also wider bars. probably no carbon too. that knolly cache is growing on me lately, anyone here riding one?

^I think Morgan has one for a review on Radavist or something

that review started my change of mind

Posted by: Sethimus

that review started my change of mind

Nice rig.

Have to say like the concept of running 27.5 or 700c wheels on it. My bike is an out off the box 700c gravel bike but think down the road a custom build like this would be something to shoot for. Wanna see how a tire like the 27.5 Schwalbe Thunder Burt's run on a bike like this. I see they have it set up up with a 2x up front.

Posted by: Endur-Bro
From what I can tell gravels flare out at the horns compared to a regular road bar. Anything else?

At the hoods I measured  the same 18" as a road bar and the ends of the flare is 25 " at least for the salsa bar, something wider at the hoods would be better for real off road IMO

Posted by: Brocklanders

Posted by: Sethimus

that review started my change of mind

Nice rig.

Have to say like the concept of running 27.5 or 700c wheels on it. My bike is an out off the box 700c gravel bike but think down the road a custom build like this would be something to shoot for. Wanna see how a tire like the 27.5 Schwalbe Thunder Burt's run on a bike like this. I see they have it set up up with a 2x up front.

i run the old, super light 420g 650b 2.1“ thunderburts on my ext-c right now

https://www.pnwcomponents.com/collections/coast-collection/products/the-coast-handlebar

So you can get these in the 480 ( 18 3/4" ) or 520 (20.5") so wider but if you read the yada they also have a shallower drop

I really like front derailleurs on CX / gravel bikes. I’ve been running ultegra Di2 since it came out for cx, upgrading to hydro DI2 when that came out. For long, steady gravel rides etc the gear spacing and range is really nice.

Posted by: XXX_er

https://www.pnwcomponents.com/collections/coast-collection/products/the-coast-handlebar

So you can get these in the 480 ( 18 3/4" ) or 520 (20.5") so wider but if you read the yada they also have a shallower drop

Got one of those coming in. Ordered the 480.  Will report once I get he bike put together.