The BikeRadar Tech Q&A is your chance to put your tech questions – complex or trivial, big or small – to our expert team and enviable black book of industry contacts. This time, a gravel rider wants to swap their bars for something wider.
I see a lot of people riding with wide gravel bars on Instagram and want to try some on my bike. Who makes the widest drop bar on the market?
Francis Webb
The gravel racing scene is dominated by slender cockpits, but look beyond the pros and there is a weird and wonderful world of drop bars that are exceptionally wide.
There is a surprisingly wide variety of wide drop bar options available, but a handful of products stand out as the best-known examples.
Curve Cycling’s Walmer Bar is probably the most recognisable modern ultra-wide drop bar.
Available in widths up to a whopping 600mm, it comes in both alloy and carbon versions and uses a generous dollop of flare to keep the hoods in a natural wrist position.
Curve says the design aims to combine “the stability and control of mountain bike handlebars with the multiple hand positions of drop bars”, while also helping “prevent pressure and tension build up” on long rides.
Then there is the truly daft Crust Towel Rack bar, which we think might well be the widest production drop bar currently available.
At its largest size it measures 660mm wide, which was once the normal width for mountain bike bars. Mounted to a drop-bar bike, it looks bonkers.
The Towel Rack is available in silver or black, but it’s only available with a traditional 26.0mm clamp diameter. That means it is best paired with old-school quill stems or vintage-style setups, though you can fit it to a modern 31.8mm stem using inexpensive shims.
Ritchey’s Beacon XL is perhaps the best-known mainstream option.
It comes in at a still-massive 520mm wide, uses ergonomic drops and costs far less than the boutique alternatives, at £50.
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That's by no means an exhaustive list – there are a lot of options on the market from smaller brands, but is a good starting point for your shreddy journey.
