Happy to see that they’re a bit narrower at the lever position than the “size 40cm” would lead you to believe, yet, I don’t get it either. Granted, their specs list the reach to the very furthest point of the bends, where as most bar’s reach is measured center to center on that, so you’re gaining back 10mm there, but still… 300mm of total reach is about 100 too much. I run pretty long cockpits (120mm or 130mm stems with 80mm reach bars) and there is no way I could make this work. I’ve got no idea how they settled on this length, as it wouldn’t take much thought to crunch a few numbers regarding your potential customer base’s fit. Aside from building a completely new bike up around these bars, that kind of reach change is just a deal breaker for 99% of people, whereas had they gone for something like 230mm to 250mm total reach, I could see them being a bit more convincing and worth a gamble. Either way, they’re certainly a very niche product that I wouldn’t want on my daily ride, but for a certain event/bike, I’m very much a potential customer.
Have there been any recent studies about the effect of bar width aerodynamics? I’d like to see a wind tunnel test with a sweep from 44 to 32cm bars, and include TT bars, and maybe data about bar height. Oh also pick a rider with an already good position.
The test with 46-42 is not very meaningful to me since even 42 is ridiculously wide imo.
Another thing I wonder is what the difference between the “aero tops” position is, and riding in the drops with your arms parallel versus straight up and down.
So far I haven’t seen any evidence that convinces me that defaulting to the UCI minimum width bars (35 outside measurement) isn’t the fastest possible setup. Also after running 36cm bars for so long they just feel normal now so there’s that.
Someone must‘ve dropped that thing on the drive side… 
Thank you for the suggestion! Installed it today and wrapped my handlebars for the first time. Stoked to try these out soon.
Narrow or aero?
Both.
Naerow.
I am very jealous!
I tried like heck to get some of these but they will not ship to the USA and I don’t have any Euro buddies.
Hei, it’s me your euro-buddy 
So do people not care about the width at the drops at all? The above bars for example at 43cm (c-c?) are quite wide at the drops.
Seems like companies measure at the hoods now… ? Didn’t used to be that way, as far as I recall.
Personally I ride and sprint in the drops enough that to me the width there is important.
Coming from the era of “straight” drop bars with no flare, it really didn’t matter where you measured.
Now that flare is becoming more common, and particularly extreme in cases like this and gravel bars, I find it best for the bar makers to spec the width distance at the top where you mount the hoods and the bottom at the widest section of the drops.
Unfortunately, there is not a firm standard in measurement with some companies that use center to center vs outer width. So it’s a bit of a crap shoot and a person should dig to find the specs from any bar of interest. Somewhat like bikes, not all 42cm bars are equal.
I think common fit theory now is showing that you want the hoods to be at the lowest point for which someone can efficiently ride (stack) and then drops are now shorter on bars to give you “just a little” bit lower of a position as aerodynamic testing is showing a further forward lay-down position on the hoods is faster.
I think that we now consider the drops for fast technical descending and sprinting where width is king in this category for leverage and control.
Interesting theory but I would argue that wider drops don’t improve handling or sprinting on a road bike, and if you can’t ride in the drops comfortable then I don’t see how you could possibly maintain the aero hoods position.
My road bike (61cm) came with 44cm bars with no flare and I’ve upgraded to Enve AR Road bars that are 40 cm @ hoods and 45 cm @ drops. I don’t know that the flared drops improve handling per se, but they certainly help keep my elbows out of the way when using the drops. I think if these bars had no flare I’d be hitting my elbows with my knees.
I‘m with @teddygram on this one. Sprinting or even standing on the hoods 36/38cm apart feels weird and twitchy to me. Handling in the wider drops certainly does feel better to me. I can ride either in the drops or in the aero-hood position. The drops are for descending and the hoods for everything else. That’s how I ride at least l.
My shoulders are 38cm apart. So from a fit point of view 36cm are only marginally more narrow but will be more aero compared to what comes oem on large frames (44cm bars usually).
As long as your comfort and bike handling skills aren’t negatively affected by a narrow bar there seem to be only upsides imho.
I was involved in a few sprints this weekend. The faster one barely hit 40mph going into a headwind on a flat road from a small group, so not super fast. It did include some very safe line changes right before and at the early parts of the sprint as we kicked it off and went past those who didn’t participate.
I was on 36cm c-c bars on my fixed and spun it up to 170rpm. It was ridiculous but I won that one. Wish I had that extra gear but the thought never crossed my mind that I could have handled the bike any better with wider bars.
However, those wider bars are nice when your RPMs are lower, no matter the bike setup (road/fixed). If you can nail the right gears or if you’re going to really spin it up because you’re on a track bike, then I think most people would be able to learn to sprint on narrow bars.
One day when I was relaxed and just decided to chase after a couple people who went off, I chose the right gear and spun it up. It wasn’t until I looked at my file that I saw I had finally gone over 1600W. Ever since then I’ve stopped fighting and wrangling my bike and tried to replicate that fluid acceleration and I’ve had higher sprint power since. That is, until you pick the wrong gear and you’re back to fighting the bike again.
I went to the 32cm fouriers bars which measure about 33cm c-c in the drops and have noticed no negative handling effects, I have found that I don’t steer with the bars much and lean to turn. I think if someone took a video of me descending, steering angle would be extremely small at speed.
As far as sprinting, track sprinters use narrow bars to good effect and I’ve found the same with the road bike as I’m pulling upwards.
Riding out of the saddle in the hoods has me bearing weight down and using the bars to balance (unlike sprinting) and I agree that it feels unwieldly at first, however not too bad as I’ve been on 36cm bars for almost a year before moving to the 32cm.
One thing I’ve seen neglected in a few videos regarding aero and narrow bars is that they keep the stem length and height the same, when in reality in my experience I needed to go 1-2 cm longer and lower which changed my overall posture and therefore aerodynamics a lot.
But even back then you had to figure out if it was center-to-center or outside-to-outside.
I think Cinelli (and others) measured to the outside…not to mention also having their own HB diameter.
- Indeed, which is why I also said…
What…you expect me to read the whole post? I ain’t got time for that!!