Flared handlebars. They’ve been widely adopted in the gravel riding world, with the wider stance providing greater control on technical terrain—as well as the secondary benefit of getting your hands out the way of your bar bag.
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00:00Do you need flared handlebars on your road bike?
00:03They've been widely adopted in the gravel market because they give you greater control over technical terrain and you can squish a bag
00:10In between the drops that bit easier, but are we missing a trick not riding them on a road bike today?
00:17I'm gonna tell you all about it
00:19Before we get into it though
00:20We should really talk about what effect handlebars have on our aerodynamic efficiency as riders
00:26You see I'm not talking about aero bars here ones which have prioritized
00:31Being easy to go through the air as their thick flat tops
00:34No, I'm talking about round flared bars and surprisingly they don't actually have that big an impact on our CDA
00:40That's our coefficient of aerodynamic drag
00:44For a rider in a fairly average position on a bike so not too aggressive not too relaxed
00:5085% of aerodynamic drag is going to come from that rider was only 15% coming from the bike itself
00:57So it goes without saying that really the best way to optimize any
01:01Aerodynamic position on the bike is to optimize the riders position and the handlebar is the first port of call when you want to do that
01:09It's pretty well adopted now that the aero hoods position is the most aerodynamic for riding on the road
01:15Now this position is the one where you sit holding on to the hoods here
01:20Like in this position with your arms at 90 degrees to where you're holding on to the bars and this lowers your frontal section
01:27That's being hit by the wind and allows your forearm to come in line behind your wrist
01:32You'll see racers doing this more now at races rather than sitting
01:35Straight on the drops because it gives them that lower frontal area to be impacted by the oncoming wind
01:42Now a narrower handlebar can reduce your CDA even further and where once 42 centimeter bars were common
01:50You now see 38 centimeter bars and 36 centimeter bars in the pro peloton as those racers
01:56Try and reduce their frontal area and their CDA that bit more
02:00But of course it would be a miss to not mention that
02:03Barwitz obviously plays a massive part in how a bike handles the narrower your handlebar
02:09The twitchy of the bike is going to feel and that's because the handlebar is simply a lever through which you apply pressure
02:13To turn the bike and if you apply pressure through a narrower space, it's gonna happen that bit quicker
02:19Now it is possible to adapt to twitchy steering, but not all riders are going to want to do that
02:25It's very very common that riders want to ride a nice stable bike and only the pros are gonna want the fastest handling
02:31Possible. So why am I talking about all of this?
02:33Well, that's exactly where flared handlebars come in
02:35The principle is you get the narrower top section so you can sit on the hoods in a nice aerodynamic position
02:42But then the flare out at the drops puts you in that nice controlling position for descending
02:48now it's worth mentioning that a
02:50Standard flared gravel bar isn't gonna cut the mustard here because they're simply too wide to put you in an aerodynamic position
02:58You don't really get gravel handlebars narrower than a 44 or a 42 whereas on the road
03:04You're really looking for a 40 or a 38 to make the most of that aerodynamic position
03:10Now for demonstration purposes, I've equipped this bike with a Sousa cowbell bars
03:14Which are 38 centimeters wide hood to hood but then have 12 degrees of flare
03:19And hopefully you can see from the camera angle. You can see that coming out at the back
03:25now one thing to consider with flared bars is
03:28The reach and drop and how that might affect your position because some riders do like to ride with handlebars
03:33Which have a bigger drop to the drops and these shallow ones do here
03:38So bear that in mind now
03:40The downside is is not exactly like the road market is teeming with flared handlebar options available for people to buy
03:47There are a few notable options including MV's SES aero handlebar that measures
03:5435
03:55centimeters at the hood
03:56Which is seriously narrow but flares out to 40 centimeters down on the drops giving the rider the best of both worlds
04:04a
04:05More avant-garde option would be the Spico ABB which stands for aero
04:11Breakaway bar and this takes the principle of flared bars to its logical conclusion
04:15Which is it builds in an armrest to make sitting in that aero hoods position that bit easier and the hoods are just 32
04:23Centimeters wide flaring out to 37 centimeters in the drops now
04:28You may have seen these bars used in the pro peloton
04:31they were designed in collaboration with and then used by Jan Willem van Schiep and
04:36Astonishingly UCI actually haven't banned them yet. They're still UCI legal, but at
04:411,500 euros we wouldn't expect take up to happen that quickly
04:46Of course
04:47There are those that argue that flared bars on the road are not the way to go and zip are one of these they say
04:54That flared bars can mess with the brake lever alignment
04:58Which is supposed to be in a vertical plane and you can see here that the brake lever is not on that plane
05:03It does flare out in the same way that the drops do
05:07They also say that having your hands in that position on the hoods is more likely to cause injury
05:13And it's not going to be for all riders who might try and force themselves to ride in that position and suffer from discomfort
05:20That's not to say that zip haven't explored down this route at all and they have but they called it
05:26Outsweep rather than flare and this is a bit different because the hoods and the brake levers sit in a vertical
05:33alignment and instead the drops at the end sweep outwards to give a rider a bit more of a controlling position and
05:40Zip has done lots of testing around this and they've landed on five degrees of flare and 11 degrees of out sweep being the optimum
05:48Orientation of relationship between the drop and the hood before the ergonomics of the handlebar start getting messed up
05:56So our flared handlebars worth it for your road bike
06:00Well, if you're trying to optimize your aerodynamic position without really affecting the handling of your bike
06:06They could be worthy of your consideration
06:09However, bear in mind that aren't that many options to buy right now
06:12So you could be short suited in the exact spec you're looking for
06:16however
06:17We would expect this trend to increase as the lines have blurred between the road cycling world and the all road gravel world as we've
06:25Seen pretty much in every as a part of the bike. So really it's a watch this space type of debate
06:32So
06:33There you go a little introduction to the world of flared handlebars on the road
06:38If you have enjoyed this video do give us a thumbs up
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06:44And if you have any of the questions leave them in the comment section below now
06:47I'll be back soon with some more great tech content and I'll see you then
06:55I'm gonna go I'm gonna go shut your mouth. I'm gonna go
06:58Am I
07:01Yeah
07:04No, pause it then
07:08Can't work in these conditions