3T essentially built its company on road cockpits, and they continue to refine their product line-up to cater to the needs of the changing roadie. At the same times as pruning their overall bar offerings, 3T debuts three completely new ergonomic handlebar shapes that address how many of us actually ride these days, all with internal routing.
Much like they did last year by trimming their seatpost offerings back to the single Zero25, 3T have simplified their road handlebar offerings to make it easier to pick what is right for your kind of riding. Three new families – SuperGhiaia, SuperErgo & SuperLeggera – join last year’s Aeronova to offer the perfect road perch for gravel, endurance, climbing & race road cycling, all now moving to a new standard of measuring bars center-to-center at the hoods where most time is spent. Plus they have a new Apto road stem to clamp any of them in place on your bike.
SuperGhiaia gravel bike handlebars
The new SuperGhiaia bars are the most dramatic of the new 3T offerings. Following the success of their Exploro aero gravel bike, 3T wanted to develop a bar that offered similar flexibility and still plenty of control for mixed surface riding. The result is an ergonomically flared road bar that keeps its shape straight through the hoods so that your brake levers remain in the correct straight position and riding on the tops is just like a standard bar.
But get into the drops and the SuperGhiaia’s flare offers a wide platform for solid control. The other unique thing about the SuperGhiaia is that the two sizes available – 40 & 44cm (c-c at the hoods) – have dramatically different shaping. 3T developed many different prototype flare & drop shapes and the conclusion from their pro & amateur testers was pretty universal…
Narrow bar riders preferred parallel hand positions in the drops, and wide bar riders preferred the secure feel of continuing flare. The result is that even though both sizes share the same 77.5mm reach & 110mm drop, the 40cm bar ends up just 47.85cm wide at the drops, but the 44mm bar flares to a whopping 55.55cm wide at its ends (all measurements c-c.) It also incorporates the same chamfer corner tops that were developed for the new SuperErgo.
At first the new SuperGhiaia shape will only be available in a mid-level Team carbon version at 200g, with availability from November 2017. 3T wasn’t specific about timing, but alluded to the fact that both a more affordable Pro alloy version & a premium LTD offering are both in the works.
SuperErgo all-around, endurance comfort bars
3T’s Ergonova bar has been their biggest seller for more than a decade, so they were care not to make too many changes when it came time to develop it into the new SuperErgo. Essentially the diameters, curve & drop remain the same, but 3T designed new chamfered corners on the SuperErgo’s tops to make the bar more comfortable to hold, especially when pulling on the corner of the bars during steep climbing.
The new ergo bar does get some minor hood & drop reshaping, although it is just to make the bars play nicely with the most modern shift/brake lever designs on the market. The SuperErgo is available this month in 260g $105/95€ alloy Pro bars, 200g $350/300€ carbon Team bars, and a 173g $425/375€ LTD version. Each spec level comes in 38, 40, 42 & 44cm widths (c-c, hood-to-hood.)
SuperLeggera light weight climbers’ bars
The SuperLeggera keeps it simple. Constant taper top & a traditional round drop. The result – the lightest drop bar 3T makes – available now in Team & LTD carbon versions. The $350/300€ Team bars weigh just 186g, while the $425/375€ LTD bars cut back to just 166g, with 40, 42 &44cm widths on offer.
Aeronova aero road race bars
The popular Aeronova is the fourth bar option in the newly redefined drop bar line-up, but is completely unchanged from last year. The only change that 3T said to expect for the aerodynamically optimised road racing bar is a gradual move to the new graphics look of the three new bars introduced for 2018.
Apto alloy stem
The new Apto looks pretty much like a basic aluminum stem at first glance, but does tuck in a few nice features in its simple design. Reaching back to the design of 3T’s first stem, the Apto again gets a small rubber 3T logo for the faceplate. But behind that is a window offering an adjustable interface to cleanly fit an out-front style Barfly GPS mount.
The Apto also features reward facing faceplate bolts, that 3T says allowed them to make the stem both more aerodynamic and lighter overall. While the reshaped bar line-up was much about reducing the number of different products, the Apto maintains a wide fitting range with lengths from 70-150mm, and +/- 6° & 17° models available. The $70/65€ Pro stem (142g in 100mm) and $110/100€ Team stem (129g with ti bolts) will be available from October 2017.
