Innovation-fulled OneUp Components have designed what they feel is the “perfect” carbon handlebar, and the “longest, yet shortest” cable operated dropper seat post there is. Some bold claims, but these guys do love a bit of one-upmanship. We review the two components here, along with their ergonomic dropper post remote.
OneUp Components Ovalised Carbon Handlebar
At just $138 OneUp are hitting a pretty decent price point for a carbon bar. What do we actually need from a handlebar in terms of performance? OK, we all have a preference when it comes to rise and sweep but what about the properties of the bar itself? We definitely want it to be stiff laterally so that we’ve got good sensitive steering accuracy from the bar when its under load. However, do we really want that stiffness to be the same in the vertical plane? Of course not. If a bar is super stiff in the vertical plane, you will feel every last little bump the trail throws at you, making your hands and your forearms and your whole upper body liable to fatigue more quickly. A bit of compliance vertically should give your forearms and upper body a break, absorbing some of the chatter from the trail so your muscles and ligaments don’t have to.
Many brands have designed bars to have these aforementioned properties, some with more success than others. The most significant of these would be the Flexx handlebars from Fasst company, which actually feature elastomer-mediated suspension about a pivot either side of the stem. Keep an eye out for a Bikerumor review on those coming shortly.
So what have OneUp Components done to optimise the properties of their new handlebar? For steering accuracy and lateral stiffness, they’ve have opted for a super stiff 35mm diameter clamp area, tapering off to 22.2mm at the bar ends. In the transition zone, the 35mm quickly shifts to a flattened oval shape (longest part lying parallel to ground).
OneUp’s in house testing of the bar showed a 21% increase in vertical compliance and a whopping 28% increase in lateral stiffness. That should be noticeable right? The vertical compliance certainly is. I’ve run this bar on my enduro setup for the last few months and have noticed a considerable reduction in arm pump. In this time I’ve made no other changes to my setup; no fork setting changes, no handlebar grip changes, etc., thus I am led to believe the handlebar may have something to do with it. Though we must always be vigilant of the placebo effect. Placebo or not, I am less fatigued on the bike, allowing me to place my focus further ahead down the trail and maintain flow and momentum. The bar is shipped at 800mm and is available in both a 20mm (220g) and 35mm (225g) rise, featuring a 5° upsweep and an 8° backsweep.
Update: OneUp sent this chart to us after this story was published, showing how their testing compares the bar to others. All data in the chart is theirs, provided only FYI.
OneUp Dropper Seat Post
“The longest, yest shortest” cable operated dropper seatpost on the market. We got a hold of the OneUp Dropper Post V2, now available in 120mm, 150mm, 180mm and 210mm lengths, all of which can be shimmed down by 10 or 20 mm to suit the length of your seat tube. This means that you can get a OneUp dropper anywhere between 100mm and 210mm with just 10mm increments. Spoilt rotten.
The OneUp dropper has been an absolute saviour for me. My 15.5″ Trek Slash has a bend in the seat tube super early on meaning that the ideal (for me) 125mm Bontrager Line dropper post wouldn’t fit into the tube. Thus, I had to ride the 100mm drop version, missing out on a potential extra 2 cm of clearance. The OneUp Dropper Post has changed that. It has the shortest stack height and shortest total length of any dropper post. I recall that Katy Winton had the same issues with her dropper post, as she rides the same size Trek Slash. Her solution to this was to fit a RockShox Reverb AXS electronic dropper – no cables meant she could upgrade to a 125mm over the 100mm. For those of us who can’t remortgage the house (~$862) for an extra 25mm clearance however, the $209 OneUp post will do fine, thank you very much.
The stack at the saddle end measures just 33mm while the actuator end protrudes just 15mm out of the bottom of the post. For a full account of measurements, and to find out what length dropper you could upgrade to, see below.
I got this dropper fitted by Nick Tanner at BSpoke Cycles in Peebles; Nick was impressed by the design of the actuator window which is housed on a pivot, allowing it 360° rotation. This means that when you’re installing the post the cable is free to move around the actuator window so you’re less likely to introduce a kink into the cable which will reduce the efficiency of your post.
Functionally, the OneUp dropper post is (so far) flawless. I’ve ridden it for the last 2-3 months over summer and had no issues whatsoever. I normally run my dropper seat post with a protector; Postfender, but for the purposes of the review I chose not to in order to test its robustness properly. The return speed is still super rapid, and it makes a good ‘pop’ noise when it returns to full length, letting you know it’s there and ready when you are. It hasn’t seen a Scottish winter yet, so it will be interesting to see how it gets on with a tonne of slop thrown at it, and sub-zero temperatures. The V2 Dropper Post is available in both 30.9 and 31.6 post diameters weighing 435g to 590g, drop length dependent.
OneUp Dropper Post Remote
Suitable for any cable operated dropper post, the OneUp remote features an oversized bearing and is thus super smooth to use, even after several months of use. This is by far and away the most ergonomic and comfortable remote lever i’ve experienced. I used to only drop or raise my post on a trail if I really, really needed it, because it often felt like too much hassle and that I was losing too much concentration or grip on the handlebar when reaching for the lever. It didn’t take too much trial and error to get a super comfortable position for the lever. I now find that I use my dropper post a heck of a lot more, adjusting it incrementally to suit pedally sections of enduro stages, as well as using the full drop and extension.
The remote is nicely adjustable with the option of 3 mounting positions, and it is compatible with 4 different types of clamp including a standard 22.2mm Bar Clamp, a SRAM Matchmaker X, a Shimano I-spec-EV and a Shimano I-spec II. With a standard 22.2 mm bar clamp the remote weighs just 46g. If I really had to find something to moan about it would be the exposure of the cable on the underside of the remote, which will undoubtedly acquire water and grit over time, so if you live in a perpetually wet area, make sure to use a sealed cable housing ferrule at the lever. Pick one up for $49.
