A few years ago I got to spend a few months riding Zipp’s Contour SL bar. It was the first carbon fiber handlebar I had ridden that weighed less than 200 grams and one of the more comfortable wing bars I’ve tried to date. It was stiffer than single-malt Scotch straight from the bottle.

Since then, I haven’t encountered many truly sub-200g bars. Lots of companies advertise that their super-light Ultrabar X weighs less than your conscience, but a simple fact distinguishes reality from marketing hype: mold. Well, the plural: molds.

Most companies producing bars in the 200-250g range are doing so because they produce all the bars in halves, trim the sections to length and then bond them to the clamp section. Three pieces. The extra weight comes from the overlapped carbon in the bonded areas.

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Here are the four handlebars that have found their ways onto my personal bikes (and many test bikes as well). Different strokes for different folks I’ve ridden Deda’s shallow round bar for ages. Bicycle fit and contact points: handlebar, saddle, shoes/pedals are the most important items in determining comfort and, in many ways, performance. It’s a decidedly old-school drop and I love it. It is my preferred bar for Campagnolo’s shifters both old and new. With that in mind, I wanted to share with you some of my favorite handlebars. It also works well for SRAM Double Tap shifters, but I prefer another Deda bar for those. But if you’re looking for a classic bar, the Newton Shallow is great. The bar quickly rounds and drops to the shifters. At 244 grams, the Newton is light for an alloy bar but I never wanted it to be any stiffer.

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