HotBars

Howdy, All! Clayton here, the founder of HotBars. I apologize for not being a part of the discussion about my own product on launch day. Sea Otter setup was all-consuming! Without getting into a back-and-forth for each individual comment, I'd like to simply provide one long-winded bit of development insight that may help alleviate some misconceptions. Honestly, I think I could have done better when explaining certain aspects of the system in the press release. Your varying perspectives are forcing me to refine my explanations...thank you for that! Let's start out with a basic, but important, overall comment. This product is not for everyone. It's not even for most or maybe even what you would consider some people. Let's say few. It's for few people. But for those few people, we (myself and all the folks I've had on them for the last couple years), this niche product has become a staple component for our needs. For certain riders in certain climates, winter riding is the same riding we do in the summer, but in far sketchier conditions, in temps that our joints hate, and yet we love it so much that many of us ride more during the winter than we do in the summer. I've been running a version of this on my bike for three years and spent the first two years telling myself that it was too small of a market to make it a viable product. To be honest, the article showing 10% of respondents fully interested and another 20% being keen on the idea....is actually a larger percentage than I thought it would be. So for you 30%, I hope I've made something you'll enjoy. I've dedicated a couple years of my life to being sure that every single detail is as dialed as possible. One common misconception I read was that having to go through the handlebar and grip would cause them to be very inefficient. I have two years of not sleeping, and instead testing, to say with confidence that is not the case. The heat has to go somewhere. It has to transfer and be dissipated. The inside of the bar is insulated, which creates a thermal barrier going towards the stem. Minimal heat loss there. The heat builds at the center of the bar and the only direction in which it can radiate is either towards itself (minimal energy loss) or into your grip which is then keeping your hand warm. We started with an aluminum bar and, as expected, the stem area was heating up within minutes. With the carbon bar, it remains at ambient temperature at a point only 1-2 centimeters from the grip. Very little conduction in that direction because it doesn't have to radiate in that direction. The heat sits there, right in the palm of your hand, until it dissipates into your hand. For most winter riding my friends and I do, 2-3 hours of continuous battery runtime is plenty. At that point, we've already been soaking wet and thinking about pizza for the last hour of the ride anyways. If it wasn't enough runtime, I would have expanded the battery capacity. It's also worth noting few of the people I ride with actually run them continuously. For instance, I only have them on for parts of the climb (when needed) and then usually turn them off for the descents. If my goal is simply to keep my hands dexterously comfortable but not constantly toasty....I can get 4-5 hours out of a charge. That way I'm not overly distracted by my hands being warmer than the rest of my body during the descent. By the time I get to the bottom, I'm ready to turn them back on and then get my hands back up to temp within a few minutes. Repeat, repeat, repeat...then pizza. I owned a fat bike for a couple winters while I lived in properly snowy climates. I 100% had pogies on that bike and got great use out of them. I also rode that fat bike differently though, and on different terrain, than I how I now spend my winters riding in Bellingham. I'm not asking you to throw away your pogies. I am here to provide another alternative if pogies don't suit your riding style or if you simply want a less bulky solution. There's no denying that the battery pack is incredibly noticeable when looking at the bike. It's quite the conversation starter when rolling up to a group of riders on the trail. There's no hiding it, but know that we did prototype revisions in sub-millimeter increments to reduce the height/size until it was as small as we could possibly make it. And yet, there it is...still there. But the important thing is that it truly does disappear while riding. This isn't some fruitless marketing claim. How we naturally position ourselves over the handlebars while riding puts riders in a position where even when you look down at them (even though you should have your eyes on the trail), they seemingly blend into the bar. Our original protos had the pack out in front of the handlebar, but we wanted to run handlebar mounted lights at the same time. We begrudgingly put the pack on top and found it to be better in every single way. For the comments mentioning worries about heating carbon fiber...we've done all the research, development and testing and testing and testing to be confident that there are no structural concerns with using carbon fiber for this application. While they are certainly using different resins than us, NASA uses carbon fiber to build heat shields that withstand 2,000°C. I assure you...we did the research...we spent the time....carbon is perfect for this application. The price...I hear ya. I've spent a full decade working both the product development and marketing side of things, and I've always pushed for selling products at the lowest price that is financially possible. I believe that is best for both businesses (who then sell more) and customers (who get more for their dollar). That said, you have to charge a price that still allows for a company to not only exist, but grow. I've crunched numbers until my eyes bled, and this is what the cost has to be in order for it to cover the costs of it produced, then assembled in the US, and then sold in bike shops, which is something I strongly believe it. I want to support local shops, I want to see it on their shelves and I want them to feel good about providing any support needed because they're also invested in the product. Also...tariffs. Daaaayuuum, they hurt! The good news...HotBars are currently discounted to $345 for early-adopters and preordering now ensures you will absolutely receive them this fall. That's all I've got, but I encourage anybody whose interested to go check out the website at www.hotbars.com. There is far more information there and we'll be adding plenty more tech explanations in the weeks ahead. If you read all this, thank you and good on ya. Cheers, Clayton.