ONEUP CARBON E-BAR
£149.50
SPECIFICATION
Weight: 249g (780mm) • Width: 800mm • Rise: 35mm • Sweep: 8° back, 5° up • Contact: oneupcomponents.com
Oneup components likes to do things differently and add value to everything it makes. The Squamish-based brand is not a fan of following the herd. When it comes to handlebars, its number one goal was to improve comfort without compromising on control. Nothing new about that, of course. Countless brands claim to offer a degree of compliance and comfort from their bars.
So what’s special about the Oneup Carbon E-bar? To begin with, the E-bar is drilled to accept control wires, with a channel underneath the grip that ensures they are kept out of sight. This is useful if you have a Shimano-equipped bike, where a wire goes from the remote control unit into the display next to the stem, but it’s not something that works with Specialized or Bosch-equipped bikes. Oneup also makes a standard Carbon bar without the drillings/grooves. This is also available in an alternative 20mm rise and is 10g lighter, although the price is the same.
In terms of tech specs, the 35mm-diameter E-bar gets a 35mm rise with an 8° backsweep and 5° upsweep. Instead of eye-balling the bar rotation to get the sweep set up, Oneup provides markings on the bar according to your bike’s head angle. These line up with a dot on the brand’s stem. Obviously you don’t need to use the recommended settings, but it’s a useful starting point. The markings could be made a bit easier to read, however.
It’s 800mm wide as standard but I cut my test bar down to 780mm. There are cut marks at 5mm intervals to aid any trimming.
Oneup states that its Carbon handlebar offers 21% more vertical compliance on average compared to the best handlebars on the market, along with a 28% increase in steering stiffness. Bold claims indeed, and it says it has achieved these impressive results by ovalising the central area around the rise. So does it work?
In short, yes. In back-to-back comparisons, on the same track, same bike, same day, with Truvativ’s Descendant Carbon as the control bar, the difference was stark. There was noticeably more deflection with the Truvativ bar when hitting roots head on, and the front end tended to ricochet away from these impacts. I had to hold on tighter, and I could feel feedback from the trail as much through my hands as my feet. Using the Oneup bar gave a calmer, and less spiky experience. I could relax my hands and the bike wasn’t getting deflected off line as much. While my feet continued to feel feedback from the trail, it was muted through my hands. Truvativ’s bar is noticeably more direct, but the Oneup is still adequately accurate given how much more compliant it is. The steering doesn’t feel vague but there is a slight reduction in precision.
So, Oneup’s bar genuinely delivers on its promise of more comfort and compliance. It’s a calmer, less hectic cockpit environment that lets you relax your grip on the reins through the roughest chunder.
The only problem is, you quickly get used to the advantage it brings. You almost need to swap back to a regular bar every few weeks to stop yourself taking it for granted. £150 is top end for a carbon handlebar, but the Oneup
Carbon E-bar actually delivers an advantage that goes beyond saving a few grams.