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Carbon bars. Raceface sixc, raceface next r or chromag bza

PB Forum :: All Mountain, Enduro & Cross-Country
Carbon bars. Raceface sixc, raceface next r or chromag bza
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flag gnarnaimo
O+ FL
Posted: Feb 18, 2018 at 23:31 Quote
I'm looking at upgrading from my excessively stiff 35mm aluminum bars to something that will help reduce arm pump. My main concern is carbon bars breaking while being ridden aggressively. My options are RF SixC, RF Next R or the Chromag BZA.
What would PB do?
flag StevieJB
Posted: Feb 19, 2018 at 0:35 Quote
Go to 31.8 carbon. My newest bike came with Raceface Turbine 35mm and I hated them, swapped stem back to a 31.8 and bar for Ragley carbon and great fix had the bonus that I ended up with more cash in my pocket after the swap as got good money on eBay for the raceface bits.

If worried about strength of carbon bars buy Easton Havocs, the are still more comfortable that stiff 35mm Aluminium but are at the stiff end for carbon bars, but Easton rated them as their strongest handlebar regardless of material.
flag mokydot
Posted: Feb 19, 2018 at 1:25 Quote
how about renthal 35?
flag markg1150
Posted: Feb 19, 2018 at 3:31 Quote
Renthal 31.8s are stiff and unforgiving in the carbon bar scale of vibration comfort ect so can't imagine 35s are any better. Still better than most alloy bars Iv tried but not my first choice of comfort is your goal. Loverly shape but just harsher feeling.
I'd go race face sixc 31.8. Much Better damped IMHO.
Also got a old Crank Bros iodine carbon bar that's the Comfiest bar ever but doubt they make them anymore and it's only 740 wide.
flag jeremy3220
O+ FL
Posted: Feb 19, 2018 at 7:06 Quote
I have the RaceFace Next R's on order so I can't comment on them yet. The SixC bars have about the same weight but are listed for DH, the Next R is for trail/enduro/AM. According to some sites the Next R's were designed for good "small bump compliance". I'm not racing DH, the NEXT R is their newest design so that's what I went with. I couldn't find much info on the differences.
flag onemind123
Posted: Feb 19, 2018 at 7:24 Quote
jeremy3220 wrote:
I have the RaceFace Next R's on order so I can't comment on them yet. The SixC bars have about the same weight but are listed for DH, the Next R is for trail/enduro/AM. According to some sites the Next R's were designed for good "small bump compliance". I'm not racing DH, the NEXT R is their newest design so that's what I went with. I couldn't find much info on the differences.

Marketing at its finest here.

Rf - we have new bars that are about the same weight as our existing dh bars

Consumer - so what is the actual difference between theae new bars and the dh bars

Rf - lets say small bump compliance, and re-label then ENDURO.

Consumer - i will take three please!
flag Vulhelm
Posted: Feb 19, 2018 at 7:59 Quote
I swapped out my stock RF Turbine 35mm bars for RF Sixc bars. Night and day difference. The vibration damping properties of the Sixc bars make them much more comfortable. 35mm aluminium bars are horrible
flag jeremy3220
O+ FL
Posted: Feb 19, 2018 at 11:30 Quote
onemind123 wrote:
jeremy3220 wrote:
I have the RaceFace Next R's on order so I can't comment on them yet. The SixC bars have about the same weight but are listed for DH, the Next R is for trail/enduro/AM. According to some sites the Next R's were designed for good "small bump compliance". I'm not racing DH, the NEXT R is their newest design so that's what I went with. I couldn't find much info on the differences.

Marketing at its finest here.

Rf - we have new bars that are about the same weight as our existing dh bars

Consumer - so what is the actual difference between theae new bars and the dh bars

Rf - lets say small bump compliance, and re-label then ENDURO.

Consumer - i will take three please!

The old ones were labeled 'enduro'. I just needed some bars for a new bike. Thanks for the neckbeard comment though.
flag sdken
Posted: Feb 19, 2018 at 12:07 Quote
jeremy3220 wrote:
onemind123 wrote:
jeremy3220 wrote:
I have the RaceFace Next R's on order so I can't comment on them yet. The SixC bars have about the same weight but are listed for DH, the Next R is for trail/enduro/AM. According to some sites the Next R's were designed for good "small bump compliance". I'm not racing DH, the NEXT R is their newest design so that's what I went with. I couldn't find much info on the differences.

Marketing at its finest here.

Rf - we have new bars that are about the same weight as our existing dh bars

Consumer - so what is the actual difference between theae new bars and the dh bars

Rf - lets say small bump compliance, and re-label then ENDURO.

Consumer - i will take three please!

The old ones were labeled 'enduro'. I just needed some bars for a new bike. Thanks for the neckbeard comment though.

onemind123 does have a point about marketing though... I'm not sure about the "Next R" but the original 35mm 760mm wide "Next" bars were stiff AF. Label ANYTHING with "enduro", "great small bump compliance", or "stiff" and you will have all the consumers buying.

The regular "Next" bars were stiffer than the sixc DH, enve DH, etc (based on deflection tests). You can also kind of tell by the sweeps of the bars, generally the flatter and lower rise bar (e.g. Next) will be stiffer.

Carbon may take out the trail buzz, but they are still stiff on big hits and high speeds (based on my experience). Some may like that...
Although - carbon could be nice and compliant if layered correctly, but when it comes down to it, I haven't personally seen any manufactures labeling deflection data when marketing bars.

I've been on a 800mm SIXC, 785 six DH bars and 800 BZA Spank Vibrocore 31.8, SC Carbon, but settled on the Deity blacklabel 31.8 bars after back-to-back runs at the bike park (same bike, suspension tune, same trail). I've upgraded to "revgrips" to remedy the trail buzz, and I get to keep the alloy. Nice and flexy without being noodly .
flag BikePilotOne
Posted: Feb 19, 2018 at 12:22 Quote
I'm running Answer 780 SL carbon bars. 31.8mm. They feel great to me. Don't have a ton of points of comparison though.
flag jeremy3220
O+ FL
Posted: Feb 19, 2018 at 12:41 Quote
sdken wrote:
The regular "Next" bars were stiffer than the sixc DH, enve DH, etc (based on deflection tests). You can also kind of tell by the sweeps of the bars, generally the flatter and lower rise bar (e.g. Next) will be stiffer.


The new ones have the same rise, backsweep and upsweep as the SixC. One bike mag even thought they might be the same bar rebranded. I was originally going to get Santa Cruz carbon bars but they're on back order. Plus the RaceFace bars are labeled as enduro and I buy anything with enduro slapped on it.
flag gramboh
O+ FL
Posted: Feb 19, 2018 at 14:02 Quote
I thought the speculation is that the Next R = SixC 800mm bar (same mold, new paint) and RF introduced the new SixC 820mm as the DH bar.

I have SixC 35 780mm on my DH bike and Turbine 35 770's on my trail bike, definitely prefer the feel of the SixC and will be upgrading to that on my trail bike this summer.
flag Maslin02
Posted: Feb 19, 2018 at 14:12 Quote
35mm Next R for me, night and day from the Turbine R.

Went from stock 35mm Kona stuff to Rethal stem and Turbine R bars, it was abusive. Picked up the Next R bars and couldn't be happier.
flag gnarnaimo
O+ FL
Posted: Feb 20, 2018 at 7:21 Quote
Nobody with any experience breaking carbon bars?
Also would you not feel 35mm 3ould be stronger than 31.8mm?
flag islandforlife
FL
Posted: Feb 20, 2018 at 13:29 Quote
cdmbmw wrote:
Nobody with any experience breaking carbon bars?
Also would you not feel 35mm 3ould be stronger than 31.8mm?

Running the Chromag BZA carbon bar. It's actually one of the heavier of the carbon bars (by a few grams), which led me to thinking it might also be one of the stronger carbon bars. Great so far... good damping.

Regarding 35 mm being stronger... from what I've read that's not what they did with the move to 35. Going up to 35mm yes, made for a stiffer, stronger bar... so much so that they were able to use less material than they actually use to achieve the same stiffness/strength in a 31.8. So the end result is a lighter bar with the same stiffness/strength. Then they go from there tailoring for DH, Enduro, Trail, XC etc...
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