BARS & STEMS
Two sticks and some bolts they may be, but cockpits are fundamental to how your bike rides
Your bike’s cockpit – its stem and handlebar – may not have the oversized tubing or electronic trickery that’s become typical elsewhere on the modern machine, but it remains one of the most crucial parts of your bike. The handlebar is one of just three contact areas with the bike, along with the saddle and pedals, so it has a massive effect on fit, control and comfort. The cockpit is also one of the areas that companies often scrimp on when decking out new bikes, making it an ideal upgrade if you’re looking to reduce weight, boost performance or both.
When buying a new cockpit, getting the handlebar width and stem length right is crucial – but that’s only the basic part of the equation. You also have to consider the angle of the stem if you want to get your bar higher for a less aggressive riding position, for example – especially if you’re limited by the length of steerer tube. Bars also differ in shape, offering varying amounts of reach and drop. Reach is measured from the centre-line of the bar to the front of the drops, and serves as a guide when working out how far away the hoods of your brake levers are going to be. Drop is usually measured from the centre-line at the top the bar to the centre-line at the end of the drop. Also, if you’re running Campagnolo with thumb-operated levers you will have to look for a bar with a suitable drop.
In terms of budget, we’ve tested popular cockpits from a wallet-friendly £65 aluminium setup to pro race-developed £300-plus carbon fibre offerings. Each of them matched a 42cm bar and 100mm stem, and for back-to-back testing we limited the time between rides by using a slip-on length of foam grip rather than wraparound bar tape, as the latter can alter the feel of a bar depending on both the brand of tape and how tightly (or well) it’s wrapped.
We also brought a bit of engineering to the party [our tester has a degree in chassis dynamics], using accelerometers on the steerer tube and on the tops, where most of us have our hands when riding. This measured acceleration levels coming into the stem and bar, and acceleration levels at the bar – broadly speaking, the bigger the reduction of the acceleration at the bar, the more comfortable it is, though this does mean less stiffness.