Building up a gravel bike - handlebars and stems

Tech Tech - What to Buy
1

Hi all,
im about to get a Santa Cruz Stigmata frame and am looking for recommendations on parts. Im thinking to build it up with a new Sram UDH gravel groupset. What do you guys think on handlebars and stems? Worth going for carbon? Im looking for your recommendations/experiences.

Currently looking into Zipp alu stem and bars (cheaper and SL versions) , including non-flared ones. I have 40cm road handlebars without any flare on my gravel bike and i cant really fault it.

Thanks

2

I have preferred CF bars on all my bikes for the last 20-ish years. For my gravel bike, I’m using the Whisky Spano Carbon, and I really like it. It has a mild flare that works really well for the way I like to ride, and the shaped sections of the bar feel great. I highly prefer it over the Ritchey aluminum flared bar I started with (came with a bike I bought). I’ve found I prefer the feel of a mild flare for drop bars, even on a road bike.

3

I have a size XL MY2024 Stigmata with the Force 1X build kit and it came with a 440mm Zipp Service Course SL-70 XPLR bar and Zipp Service Course 70mm stem. Other than wishing the bar to have slightly less flare, I have no complain. The alloy bar allows me to use the RouteWerk handlebar bag (it can also be used with a limited selection of carbon bars). The only benefits I see of carbon fiber bar over alloy are perhaps a slight decrease in weight and corrosion-resistant. On gravel bikes with wider tires at lower tire pressure, any vibration-damping feature that a carbon fiber bar might have is pretty much pointless.

4

I had always had non-flared bars on my road bikes and thought the flared bars idea for gravel was hype. Then I tried them. :slight_smile:
My perception is that the flare makes it much easier to rotate your elbows out for a strong position descending rough stuff.
The bike came with Easton EA50 AXs, which were fine. I later found a deal on EC70 AXs in the narrower size I wanted and swapped those on. Maybe a bit more comfrotable but not a huge difference.

5

Hands down best bars I’ve ridden on any bike are the Coefficient RR bars. They were designed by bike fitters for human bodies as opposed to whatever 99% of bars were designed for. I put them on my road and gravel bikes. They really help with hand/arm pump on gravel descents and bumpy roads too.