On my gravel bike, I have the bars that came with the bike. According to their description , they seen to good bars. I mainly ride on the hood's. Friends have told me how good flared bars are for use in gravel. Will they convince me to ride the hood's more?
hippymtnbkr wrote:On my gravel bike, I have the bars that came with the bike. According to their description , they seen to good bars. I mainly ride on the hood's. Friends have told me how good flared bars are for use in gravel. Will they convince me to ride the hood's more?
If you already mostly ride on the hoods, why would you think you would ride on the hoods more with flared bars?
In general, your bars should be setup so you can comfortably use the whole bar.
Flared bars won't change the hoods much except some will slant them inward. Where they make a difference is in the drops, which get wider and provide more control.
I wrote the question wrong, I ment to ask would I use the drops more? Since I've been reading more, it would seem that I would go for a shallow drop. But I'm thinking the degree of the flare be narrow instead of very wide. After buying my bike, I found there not to be much gravel in my area. I gotta head west to the mountains or east closer to the coast
I'm using the FSA Adventure compact bars. They have a shallow drop and 6 degrees of flare. The little bit of additional leverage in the drops is nice for downhill, and also useful for climbing, imo. They're also cheap, at $40.00 or so.
Get flared bars and you will never look back. It's just more comfortable. And then you get the bonus of more control when things get rowdy. I used to hardly ride the drops. Now I'm down there any occasion I get, and I love it. On Salsa Cowchippers, so 24deg flare. Quite a pronounced flare.
I'll provide a counterpoint. I have to go at least 12 miles to get to anyplace off the tarmac (more to anyplace interesting) so I spend a lot of time on the road. Either that or use a car, but that goes against the whole independence from lugging a huge cage around ethos. I like a more upright position off the road and a more aero one on: currently I have shallow drops but now realize I'd be better off with deep. At least I didn't get flared bars. I got a gravel bike for its flexibility: not such a diva you can't take it off road, not a boat anchor with the aerodynamic cross section of a barn on road. So compromises have to be made. All of which is a roundabout way of saying: assess your usage and preferences and decide using those. The opinions of others, experts or otherwise (mine included), may have no relevance for you.
Another thing to consider is the width of your bars. Most bikes, regardless of size, come with 42mm bars. I ended up on 46mm Cowchippers and am much more comfortable on the hoods or drops. I've also ridden Woodchippers, but found the flare was just too extreme.
I went the opposite direction of most - went with narrower 40cm bars with only 12 degrees of flare (Shimano Pro Discover 12 deg medium flare bars). On my multi-hour gravel and road rides, the narrower 40cm bar allows my shoulders to be more relaxed and my front more aero. The drops are about 44cm, so plenty wide for control on tricky sections but still good for fast group rides on the road. Drop is shallow, too. You might take a look at these.
I prefer a flared bar for all riding including road bikes now, the wrist angle on the hoods is just more comfortable for me. It does work better in the drops but for me that's relatively minor. What really does encourage using the drops more (and with full-rigid gravel bike you really need to be in the drops to descend fast on loose and rough stuff) is a dropper post. Otherwise it's too heads down and center of mass too high, and can't get back far enough. I'd take dropper + non-flared bars over flared bars + rigid post every time.
(But standard caveat to all dropper discussions, my local gravel is basically light MTB trailson mountains, not flat farm roads)
And OP never mentioned size - I'm a big guy so 44-46 bars feel nice for me, would definitely try out a 48 to see what it's like. I used to ride 42s when that was all you could get but for me the aero 40-38s would be absurd. No point commenting further on size without knowing more about the rider
Flared bars are more susceptible to be damaged in an accident ?- aluminium - my bike tipped over when i was trying to do a bike selfie ! I tried to catch the bike as it started to tip over but i remember seeing the handlebar hit the concrete and kind of bounced up where i caught it then. The flared section would be the first part to hit the ground as it sticks out.I think the right handlebar is just very very slightly bent in now - slightly less flared than the other side.
Derailleur was scratched also but i think luckily no major damage to it - it shifts fine.
I had crashed twice on my road bike with carbon drop handlebar and the brake lever and hood took the brunt of it instead.
Getting back to the topic I do like flare handlebars - i feel more in control of the steering somehow.
I just can't help but thinking - if you need a wide flair, wouldn't you be better off having a wider bar overall? What is the benefit of having a narrow top and wide in the drops?
Plenty of people are going +2 or +4cm for gravel, and some OEM bikes are getting some ultra wide bars. I just struggle to wrap my mind around having a (relatively) narrow stance on the hoods.
Since getting a new gravel bike, like a month ago...and riding only on roads as it's winter and that's all I got for now, I'm already wanting to swap out the bars. My previous gravel bikes had minor flair, but it was more about the specific bar...with flair being a nice option for steep, rough descents (though I have very few of these on my usual rides). With this new GRX groupset and it's long hydro brifters, I'm wanting a bar with less reach. The Pro bars mentioned above with medium flair look like a good option. I also don't like the bar tape that came on the bike...so it's starting to get a bit pricey! I'll continue to monitor this thread but I'm thinking for me I want a little flair!
chas wrote:I just can't help but thinking - if you need a wide flair, wouldn't you be better off having a wider bar overall? What is the benefit of having a narrow top and wide in the drops?
Plenty of people are going +2 or +4cm for gravel, and some OEM bikes are getting some ultra wide bars. I just struggle to wrap my mind around having a (relatively) narrow stance on the hoods.
I think that narrow tops and wide drops matter only if you're somewhere where you can go fast enough that aero actually matters. For me, if I ran any wider on the top, I'd really notice it on pavement and smooth dirt. But I really like having the extra width on the drops for control when I hit the rough stuff.
