WHAT KIND OF HANDLEBAR ? STRAIGHT OR CURVED ? And we are not talking about biking straight on or taking a curve on the road !!
Depending on your bike type, riding style, area where you live, or just based on looks, you need to make a choice about what style of handlebars you are going to use.
Bars come in all shapes, sized and styles, but they also have a lot of simularities.
Regardless of the shape, handlebars are available in common material types.
Aluminium and Carbon Handlebars.
These are the modern day materials of choise. Your choise of material will be mostly an emotional and ..... a financial choise.
Modern aluminium alloys can make for bars that are every bit as good as some versions of full carbon handlebars.
For example bars made of AL 7075 T6 TB are strong because of a special T6 treatment (cold and warm threatment) and lightweight because of the aluminum alloy type and due to the fact that it is triple butted (TB).
Triple butted means that the handlebar utilized three different wall thicknesses throughout the length of the bars by removing material where it is not needed and structurally reinforcing the high stress areas.
Double Butted (DB) has two different wall chicknesses.
With carbon the characteristics of handlebars can be fine tuned during manufacturing by aligning the fibers in a particular direction in selected locations.
Although all straight handlebars and all curved handlebars may appear the same, there are subtitle differences in the shapes.
Straight bars can be raised or have a back sweep for improved comfort.
Curved bars can have a wing shape on the top to increase hand support and to provide improved aerodynamics.
The drop of a curved bar can be classic (round), anatomical (with a straight section) or ergonomic (with a shallow drop).
Sizes of both bar types differ in both width and diameter.
The diameter can be normal (25.4 or 26.0) or oversized (31.8).
Oversized gives increased strength, stiffness and reduces weight.
