It may seem like mountain biking is all about enduro and gravity these days, but there is still a growing endurance segment. Events like the Absa Cape Epic are more popular than ever as riders push themselves to find their own physical and mental limits. Naturally, a relatively new company out of South Africa is focusing specifically on endurance inspired bike solutions. Solutions like their Farr Barr.
From certain angles, the Farr Barr looks fairly radical, but its design makes a lot of sense. We’ve seen everything from special grips, to inner bar ends, to full on aero bars in an attempt to give endurance mountain bikers additional hand positions for grueling endurance events. Rather than adding additional weight and complexity to riders’ setups, Farr builds an additional hand position into the bar itself.
Starting with a 720mm wide full carbon handlebar, the Farr Barr builds in a “wing” on either side of the stem. These wings are the perfect shape to support your palm and form a very comfortable hand position that is probably more aerodynamic as well.
From straight on, the wings disappear into the silhouette of the bar to keep things streamlined. Farr lists the bars as having a 9° rearward sweep, but they also have a noticeable upward component as well.
When mounted, the barrs look pretty normal from the front…
Yet a little wild from the top. Most importantly though, they seem to be very comfortable and ideal for their intended purpose.
On the scale, even with the wings the bars come in at a respectable 168g – only one gram off of claimed. 
U.S. Pricing and availability
Since these are geared towards the XC market, even the minimal 720mm width may be too wide for some so the bars are cuttable and include hash marks for cutting guides. Until now, the Farr Barrs and other components haven’t been available in the U.S. Moving forward they’ll be imported by the same folks behind Spēd Precision Wheels, where the bars will sell for $154.95. Email info@spedprecision.com to order or get more info for now until the Farr U.S. website is up and running.
UPDATE: updated with a preorderThe Sped Precision website has been for the bars with expected delivery of mid-February.
As a single speeder/XC rider, these would be pretty nice. I spend a lot of time in that position.
Great idea but 720mm? Are they not listening? 740mm minimum for the xc crowd and some can cut down. 760mm even better
exactly. They should start at 760 and or even 780 and let people cut them down to fit their needs. You can do the opposite and add length. I might not be an endurance rider but I find that hand position very useful.
Why didn’t someone think of this sooner? This is brilliant!
Meh, if someone were really going for the “XC aero” position, Fox/Rockshox would build hand grips into the crowns of their XC forks.
All kidding aside, I may actually buy this bar, because I regularly use this hand position traversing roads between trails.
Meh
meh meh
meh meh mehmeeeeeh
hmm meh
These look pretty cool. For endurance rides I’ve even tried putting extenders on the end of the bar.
Great idea and looks sweet. The length is fine for xc.
Just attach some bmx foot-pegs to your fork and use them to steer the bike. I do like the idea of this fork but is there’s a shaped grip that I can add to my existing bars?
I wonder if you could slide an ergon grip up there?
Thought the same thing then looked around and saw that pretty much every MTB bar tapers pretty gradually from the stem clamp diameter to the grip diameter and definitely not at the same rate across models. That makes a one-size-fits-all solution difficult and rules out just sliding a grip up there unless you use a non-locking ergo (useless) or an ESI-type slide on, at which point you might as well use bar tape. As much as I like to nit pick new stuff, this frankly looks awesome.
It’s about time! Amazing that it took this long for a carbon flat bat with inner hand positions. It’s a little narrow but definitely a step in the right direction.
well… I, being me, likes this. Also, I think its nice. Thank you
I, for one, would rather have a bar that was too wide than too narrow. I’m also old enough to remember when 600mm was absurdly wide and everyone thought you’d snag the ends on trees.
Otherwise pretty cool idea. If it wasn’t for the width, I’d consider getting one. Not least of which because the logo looks like it says “fart” and stuff like that can be really funny near the end of long rides.
This is very much a head slap ‘duh!’ moment. Good stuff!
Bike Industry : what we want are new lightweight cinelli spinacci like extensions with 31.8mm mounts. I sometimes use that position in marathon races but without being able to extend a bit your arms such a position isn’t really comfortable in the long run.
Get some of those larger bar ends, mount them inboard and you are good to go. I used a very cheap set for the 2017 marathon season at elite level. Worked very well, some officials looked over their clip boards at my bike but no one said anything – some people laughed but I dropped most of them most races on the first fast section of single track…
Looks like my bar is tapering quite soon I have thumbies mounted right after the brake levers. I’ve considered a Deda Blast for the long climbs of the Grand Raid.
My lungs [don’t] work full capacity in this position.
Great idea and implementation, I think I will be adding these eventually.
Great idea. Makes me realize how much I miss my old school, funky looking, amazingly functional bar ends!
Cool idea would actually be nice to go into the supertuck descent mode with this set up (obviously only on pavement or very smooth gravel roads) sometimes on my rest days I’ll take my hard tail (which is set up for technical riding) for some urban MTB and I hate spinning out the 30 on descents.
Neat! On my road bike I’ve sometimes adopted a “virtual aerobar” position, just resting my forearms on the bar tops. You could possibly do the same with these flat bars.
Agreed: make the next revision a bit wider and put the hand test position a bit further out so there’s more room for my lights, computer, etc., and I am sold!
Interesting. Aimed at racing? So how do you hold on with a number plate smack bang in the same spot? Hrm.
Cool bars. Anyone know what fork are they running? – the P650b ran a straight steerer in those colors which has been a somewhat vexing attribute of an otherwise great bike.
look like boobs
Trek had a ‘bar with a similar idea, except the additional hand spot extended,.. sort of like bar ends if they were mounted inside of the brake levers/shifters. https://colonialbicycle.com/product/bontrager-satellite-elite-carbon-trekking-handlebar-50935-1.htm
“the minimal 720mm width may be too wide for some” Whah!? Uh, no. Good concept but poor execution. Shoulda gone with at least 760mm with cutdown marks.