Carbon vs Alloy Handlebars for MTB: Blind Test

hey this is connor from biker's edge i am at a trail head right now zach is back there somewhere right there there he is today we're talking all about carbon versus aluminum handlebars and which ones you should be running oh i just blasted it this trail is so cool oh boy this is scary hold it together [Music] what we're doing is a blind handlebar test with a set of carbon bars and a set of aluminum bars i'm not going to know which one's which zach's doing all the work back there he's going to wrap them all up in tape cover them up so i can't see which bars i'm on and then we're going to go for a ride come back swap them for the other ones again i'm not going to know which ones are which go for the exact same ride and at the end i'm going to try to guess which bars i was riding for each lap while i'm riding i'm going to be paying attention to the bars you know how they feel does one reduce vibration more than the other can i even tell the difference and to be fair each each one of these bars is identical except for the material same width same bore same rise sweep they're both renthal bars we've got the menthol carbon fat bar and the aluminum fat bar both in a 35 millimeter bore everything should be identical they're going to be wrapped in tape won't be able to see them so it really is just going to come down to me paying attention and ride feel all right so zack's just wrapping up we're going to go out for our first lap and we're going to do that now i have no idea which bars i'm on as you can see zach did a very good job of covering them up with tape um i have been trying to sneak a peek and i can't see anything so well done zach you'll have to uh excuse the bad audio here i've had a bit of a memory card issue today i apologize stick with me here it's gonna get better all right this is plenty bumpy wow this bar rises really throwing me off here this is plenty bumpy to feel the difference all right thanks ah this is fun love this trail all right like i said i'm not gonna make any guesses until i have ridden both sets of bars but i'll try to give you a little bit of feedback on what i'm feeling right now i do feel um quite a bit of vibration through my hands and arms that said this trail is super bumpy oh derailer sorry that's a expensive electronic derailleur right there so right now feeling quite a bit of fatigue in my forearms holy wow this is scary i've got the baldest back tire and this is so loose my hands are tired my hands hurt i'm hoping these are aluminum and that i'm not a wind so yeah my arms are a little tired hands are a little sore after the bottom of that gonna go swap the bars to the other ones and go repeat that lap hopefully be able to decide which ones are which starting out the second lap here this time on the orange bars those dogs are super stoked that i'm here last lap was a bit of a junk show i uh had some audio issues microphone wasn't working but that's fixed now also if i'm being 100 honest just riding those bars i could not tell what i was on i'm hoping once we hit that downhill hit some of the steeper climbs i'll be able to start to feel some differences in the bars here i will say those last bars felt pretty stiff i did have some hand and forearm fatigue that trail is steep so you're on the brakes a bit it's bumpy you know and those two things together will give you some hand pump and arm pump that that's just gonna happen um but i i did get quite a bit of it i'm really hoping i can get this right i don't want to look like a complete doof as of right now though i still couldn't tell you i'm probably going to be very wrong when i make my guess and we peel this tape off i'm getting a little nervous and i can be able to tell these apart so i'm going to do everything i can i stand up here pull on these push just see if i can get any sort of hint so in theory the difference between a carbon bar and an aluminum bar is the aluminum bar you know it's just an aluminum tube they can't really tune it it just kind of is what it is the drawback to that you know they are heavier which uh whatever i'm pretty anti-weight weenie if you can tell but the ride quality is you know it's supposed to be pretty different between carbon and aluminum bars where an aluminum bar transfers more of that energy more the vibrations more of the bumps into your hands so you feel them more and the carbon bar they're able to tune and put some strategic flex in them so that uh you don't feel every last little bump and vibration so theoretically a carbon bar is supposed to be easier on your hands arms upper body have a little more give to it and you know it's pushing 100 grams lighter zach thinks that i'll definitely be able to tell the difference um i don't know who's who's going to win here but i think if i get them right zach owes me tacos um that was part of the deal right either way i'm getting tacos it sounds like so deal either way yeah this is a pretty good day so i've had a couple bumpy little downhill bets um nothing long or sustained but i think maybe starting to show a few differences between the handlebars this trail is so cool all right starting to feel a few differences here things i like from being honest um ah these bars maybe transfer a little bit less to my hands i do feel that my hands a little more comfortable i i guess the best way to describe it is it feels like i've dropped a few psi in my front tire or that my fork feels a little more plush feels a little softer so definitely not bad things there you know i'm still getting hand pump it hasn't completely eliminated that which makes sense this trail is very bumpy and at high speeds while you're squeezing brake levers too but i do think it feels better than the last lap through oh i ate one of those like squeezy pouch baby food things that i stole from my kid and it was carrot so i've had the carrot burps and it's really gross i do not recommend that pre-bike ride i really hope when i peel this tape off they're not aluminum or i'm going to sound like a total dupe [Applause] this one is all oh boy oh boy this is scary hold it together okay now we're cooking yeah okay so without guessing or trying to guess which one's which i'll just tell you which one i prefer i flat out prefer these orange bars um whatever those end up being they make the front end of the bike feel better my hands got less tired arms got less tired um [Applause] they made it feel like the fork was more plush kind of like when you replace the seals and you got brand new buttery seals in there that's the effect it had on the front end of my bike all right time to head back to the car and do the big reveal this feels like a reality tv show or something gonna build up some drama play the survivor music i don't know what we're gonna do all right just finished up our ride um i think i've got it right and i'm gonna feel really dumb if i don't but i do prefer the bars the orange bars the second bars they felt better um felt like there was you know maybe a little bit less air in my tire or the fork was working just a little bit better it just felt better all right so here's my guess uh orange bars were carbon green bars were aluminum i'm going to peel the tape with these renthal bars the carbon ones are black and the aluminum ones are this kind of like goldust gold-ish brassy i don't know whatever color it is um so i'll be able to tell really quick the bars are black they're carbon so here we go oh and they're black there we go these are carbon bars so these bars just felt quite a bit better softer on my hands i had less hand fatigue and arm pump at the bottom of that trail kind of feel like there was maybe a little more control over the front end with these bars it didn't feel quite as rattly like the front end wasn't you know i was able to keep the bars in a more stable position that might be above and beyond what carbon bars can actually do but at least that's what it felt like in my head and again i had no idea which bars i was on at the time but i do feel like there was maybe a little more front end control with these bars versus the first set thanks for sticking around and we'll see you next time

Channel: Bikers Edge

Views: 12,646

Rating: 4.963964 out of 5

Keywords: carbon vs alloy handlebars mtb, carbon handlebars, aluminum handlebars, alloy handlebars, carbon vs alloy, best mtb handlebars, bikers edge, bike lab, renthal handlebars, mtb handlebars, handlebar, mtb, orbea rise, terror ridge, bike shop utah, utah mtb, carbon handlebars mtb, carbon handlebars vs aluminum mtb, carbon handlebars mountain bike, carbon handlebars worth it, carbon handlebars mtb 35mm, best aluminum handlebars mtb, carbon or aluminum handlebars

Id: qm2P_CRA0kw

Length: 12min 14sec (734 seconds)

Published: Fri May 07 2021