Onza has it covered if you’re looking for a properly stiff but woodland-friendly flat bar at an affordable price and don’t mind a weight and comfort trade-off.
The new 35mm bar diameter ‘standard’ is generally only available on max-width downhill risers where the potentially increased strength and stiffness of the oversize stem clamp section makes most sense, but Onza has used it on its new Bold flat bar too.
This type of bar is ideal if you’re wanting to keep your hands as low as possible – over the taller front wheel of a 29er, for example – and at 740mm (with cut marks down to 700mm) it’s wide enough to add useful steering leverage without getting wedged between every pair of trees.
The extra girth means it weighs 296g uncut though, which is pretty weighty, and it’s got an unforgivingly stiff feel that means arm pump starts early on sustained rock-and-drop trails. It also needs to be paired with a 35mm stem.
