The whole point of utilizing drop handlebars is to give yourself the option of using several hand positions during a single bike ride. It's not just riding the tops, hoods, and drops. It's moving the hands around, a little here, a little there, so as to keep your hands from going numb, the muscles from going tight and finding the right balance for generating power and speed while maximizing stability. The Oval Concepts R701 Road Bar takes a traditional idea and improves it by being both timeless and modern, classic and new.

Their idea is a round or "classic" bend to the handlebars. So-called "ergo" or "anatomic" bars have been all the rage and the bike industry has answered, either cutting back or totally eliminating the classic bends from their line-ups. Proponents of ergo bends say that the bars "fit better." We respectfully disagree. The ergo bars might have more bends or fewer, but the number of hand positions is limited. Most limiting is that there is one place for hands to fit on the drops. And it is usually further away from the brake levers, not closer. The single hand position is a pain when riding in the drops a long time. And it sometimes puts the hands in a position that isn't ideal for sprinting out of the saddle. Taking a term from the watch industry, each groove, shape, or extra bend on an ergo bar is a "complication" which often makes fabricating the bars harder and heavier as well. We lean toward classic bends and urge our customers to consider them.

This Oval Concepts R701 is a great example of a classic bend handlebar. The style is what's known as a "shallow drop." While there is some flexibility in the term, for Oval, that means 135mm of drop and 88mm of reach, or 135/88. Drop is the vertical distance from the top of the bar to the bottom of the drops. Reach is the horizontal distance from the tops to the forward-most point of the bend. People will probably take that 135/88 and compare it to some ergo bend bars, and find out that both the drop and the reach is shorter. For many, this shorter is better. It allows us to spend more time in the drops, which is something that people seem to do less and less of. Some think the drops are only for going fast. They're not. They're also for stability and range of motion. You can move your body around more when on the drops, you can hold the bars more firmly, and you can steer faster more easily. When it comes to riding rough roads, there are two places to ride, the tops and the drops. Watch any of the cobblestoned classics for affirmation.

And then, with classic drop bars, there is lots of room for placing the hands on the curve behind the brake lever, in the tightest crook of the drop, for sliding the hand back on the drops depending on how the arms are feeling or where you want your body to be when getting out of the saddle. Many like to rest their hands on the flat section at the bottom of the bar and then slide the hand forward as they need to hold the bars tighter.

Oval Concepts uses 7050 T-6 aluminum from Pechiney for these bars. It's an aerospace alloy that exceeds the German strength standard for aluminum by 100%. The 50mm radius from the tops to the forward bend is tighter than most bars and allows more hand room on top. The 56mm radius of the drop is also tight for shallow drops and effectively brings the handlebars closer to the brake levers than most bars allow. The tops are also aero bar compatible. There are three widths available, 40, 42, and 44cm, measured center-to-center and they weigh 229g. They come in a 31.8mm clamp only.