Looking to buy an integrated cockpit

Tech Tech - What to Buy
1

Hey everyone,

I’m looking to swap the stock CC.01 cockpit on my V4RS. The current bars are a bit too wide and have more reach than I’d like – and honestly I’m just not a fan of how they feel overall. Time for an upgrade.

Since the price-to-spec ratio on Chinese DTC brands seems hard to beat right now, I’ve narrowed it down to three options:

Model Stem Width (hoods) Drop Reach Flare Stem angle
Aerorevo (Lightbicycle) 90–130 375 / 395 123 mm 70 mm 9° -10°
Aerover (EXS) 90–130 380 125 mm 70 mm 10° -10°
HB02 (CRW) 80–140 370 / 390 115 mm 70 mm 11° -10°

My target hood width is 380 mm. The Aerorevo at 375 mm and the EXS Aerover at 380 mm are the closest fits – the CRW HB02 at 370 / 390 mm is the next available size down / up. I ride mostly in the hoods, sometimes tucked, regularly in the drops. I don’t really sprint…

I’ve bought rims from Lightbicycle before and been happy with the quality, but I have no experience with any of these bar/stem combos or with EXS and CRW as brands.

Has anyone ridden any of these? Particularly interested in:

  • Build quality and finish
  • How the bar shape feels on longer rides
  • Experience with the brands
  • any other input

Cheers

2 Likes
2

I have a set of the EXS Aerover 380mm/100mm which I quite like. They replaced a set of FARSPORTS F1X 380/90 as I needed the extra 10mm reach.

I like them, they are ‘more aero’ than the farsports, ie the bar is thinner on the tops. I’m told they are better for sprinting too (stiffer) but I’ve got no way to verify that

One comment I will make is that they have an ‘aero top cap’ (increasingly common) and not a standard round top cap. With the far sports I could run 5mm of stem chimney to get the bars a bit lower, with the EXS it looked a bit ugly with a spacer and normal top cap, it left a funny gap. After a couple of days running like that I put another spacer in below and ran the aero top cap for aesthetic reasons — I really should cut that 5mm off the fork but I can’t be bothered yet.

With all these bars you also have to be sure you can get the spacers and headset cover for the bike you have, unless you are lucky enough to have a bike with the ‘standard’ FSA system.

1 Like