Race Face's new Era and Turbine bars are tuned to combat arm pump
New handlebars are designed to provide compliance.
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As a major touch point, the mountain bike handlebar is one of the most important components when it comes to comfort. Almost all handlebars can be trimmed and come in a range of sizes but the shorter the bar the less the com;inace and overall comfort. To combat this, Race Face has introduced the Era and Turbine handlebars with 12 individual models.
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Race Face has found that, while other brands sell super-compliant 800mm handlebars, less than 20% remain uncut with users choosing to trim the bars to suit their preference. However, doing so reduces that lovely compliance and Race Face suggests that trimming an 800mm bar down to 760mm results in a 24% increase in stiffness.
2024 race face era bar riding.jpg, by Liam Mercer
With its new Era and Turbine handlebar, Race Face has aimed to find the balance of vertical compliance and lateral stiffness based on rider feedback. Such feedback has resulted in a secret figure that 85% of riders agreed upon and Race Face calls this its GL Tune.
GL Tune is a special shape that the brand's new handlebars use that combines a narrower stem clamp area with a rise and taper that starts earlier. The quicker taper means the bar is 10% smaller than previous models while still providing the required diameters for clamping components.
2024 race face turbine bar hero.jpg, by Liam Mercer
The Era carbon bar uses a 96-piece unidirectional carbon layup with each piece being around 1/10 of a millimetre thick. The alloy Turbine bar gets its compliance through internal butting.
Both handlebars come with 10, 20 and 40mm rise options, 760, 780 and 800mm widths and they're compatible with 35mm stems. They're also rated for e-MTB use with Class One and Three e-bikes. Each bar is shaped with an eight-degree back sweep and a five-degree up sweep.
Prices come in at £140 for the carbon Era handlebar and £80 for the alloy Turbine bar.
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