Review: PinkBike - Race Face Tubrine / ERA handlebars

PinkBike has reviewed the Race Face Turbine/ERA Handlebars. Here is what they had to say:

Race Face has a very deep lineup when it comes to cockpit components, with offerings spanning the gamut from the light and stiff Next carbon offerings to the bombproof aluminum of the Atlas series. They saw a hole in that lineup though, namely in the shape of compliance and all-mountain comfort. Filling that hard-to-picture-geometrically hole are the Era and Turbine handlebars, tuned to provide comfort via compliance, without yielding any strength.

TThere were a few strategies that went into the "Goldilocks Tune" in both bars, starting with the external shape. The bars taper to a narrow diameter as quickly as possible, keeping them as small as possible throughout the rise. That rise starts earlier in the overall width, thanks in part to the relatively narrow clamp area. The carbon Era bars have a layup optimized to provide strength where needed, while minimizing material elsewhere. The alloy Turbine bars use internal butting to achieve the same effect, and apparently the ride feel is close enough to call the tune identical between the two.

There are claims made by Race Face to counter the popular choice of oval-shaped bars as the best solution to achieving a more comfortable cockpit. These revolve around a given person's bar roll and the change in compliance that comes with that. According to the Race Face team, a roll change of 20° in either direction leads to a 20% change in vertical stiffness, where the Era's change is just 6%. We didn't conduct any science here, but I can see the logic.

The Era handlebars I've been running on my Tallboy do a great job of connecting my hands to the bike. Beyond that initial impression, the rise and sweep feels natural and neutral, and the on-trail comfort is quite good. I'm not going make any hard claims here, as there are so so many factors that lead to more or less comfort on a given day of riding, from ground hardness to tire pressure to personal fatigue. I'm not terribly picky about bar stiffness, but I am averse to bars that feel noodly or too pliant in hand. These do not.

Whatever comfort gains are made by the Era bars doesn't come at the cost of steering precision or cornering stiffness, so I'm happy to keep them on. The only issue I've had was probably my own fault, but worth touching on as I think it's made worse by the very smooth finish of the Eras. I had the bars turn in the stem on a particularly hard bottom out, but in all likelihood I was below torque spec for the Turbine stem. Controls are also a little more prone to turning on these bars, also due to the polished finish. Check your torque, even if it is a drag - I'll try to do the same. In a perfect world, all carbon and alloy bars would come with texturized clamp areas, simply for the peace of mind and ease of on-trail adjustment.

All told, the Eras feel good, neutral, and keep my hands in one place while hurtling through the air on my little bike. What more could a boy want?