Jones Adds Carbon to the Loop, Introduces New Ultralight H-Bar

I love Jones and their H-bars are the best choice for off pavement, long distance endeavors. However, getting a Jones bar (or any product I imagine) through a LBS with a Jones account is painful. My LBS has had to email and call many times to get an order fulfilled. In the end it took about 2 months to get the customer their product with little to no communication throughout that process (all while they remained in stock according to their website). In fact, a few weeks ago I recently attempted to order another bar through my LBS and, after the initial call and email went unanswered, I told them to forget about it. No bike part is worth groveling for and local bike shops employees are too busy and don’t make enough to compensate for Jones poor service. You’d think with the outrageous prices Jones charges (you know this bar is going to be more than a couple hundo) they’d be on top of taking people’s money.

Great product but terrible service.

Jones make a great product and their H-bars are the best for off-road, long distance biking. However, buying their products through a LBS with a Jones account is a painful process. The awesome LBS that I give all my business to has had to spend 2 months of repeatedly emailing and calling Jones to get an order filled for a customer (while their website showed stock was not the problem). In fact, I recently attempted to buy a Jones bar through the same shop and after the initial call and email didn’t result in any movement on Jones part, I told them to forget it. No bike part is worth groveling for and the high price tag of these bars should warrant much better customer service on Jones part. If I were about to drop the several hundo that these carbon bars will be priced at, I would want Jones to at least pick up the phone.

In the end this might be a great bar but I’m not down on Jones dumping on small shops. Those guys don’t make enough and have way better things to do than to waste time filling up Jones inbox. In the end, Jones inability to follow though on their end results in the bike shop looking bad and their customers potentially going elsewhere.

Can someone explain to me the use oft his bar design?

I would agree with Chris that flat bars “offer only one position” but only if you assume bar ends are not attached. Bar ends make flat bars a viable option, in my opinion. If you stand with your arms relaxed at your side and then raise your hands by bending your elbows, you can see that bar ends are the natural thing to hold onto. But I suppose a bar with a 45 deg back-sweep like the Jones Loop comes close to the ergonomics of bar ends. And they obviously offer more than just the two positions offered by flat bars with bar ends since holding the ends of the Jones Loop would put your back in a more upright position and holding onto the front of the loop would let you couch down.

Dear Tennessee, First off, thank you for the kind words about H-Bars. We are happy with them and getting a lot of good feedback. I am however sorry to hear about your experience trying to get yourself a set of H-Bars. We have been growing our dealer program and work with many qualified LBS who carry our products. We are definitely a small grassroots company and we do have a hard time keeping things in stock at times, but we do our best to stay on top of it. That said, I also do my best to reply to every single email that comes to my inbox, and I am happy to talk to anyone on the phone about our products. I spend a lot of my time talking to individual customers on a personal level to share my perspective on our parts and bikes, how they compare to other products on the market, and what might be best for them given their style of riding or whatnot. I want every customer to be happy with their purchase. We are currently working hard to ramp up our dealer program, we very recently went live with a new website with an online store and we are currently working to integrate dealer ordering into the site.

I started my career in this industry working in a LBS and I also started a couple of my own bike shops. I have a lot of respect for the small shops and appreciate working with them, to me they are the heart and soul of the industry. Please understand we are a very small company and we do our best. We don’t have the economies of scale of many of the larger companies but we still feel we offer good value and honest and reliable service. I do invite you to call at anytime, I am reachable on our direct line most days during regular business hours at 541-535-2034 (PST). Sincerely, Jeff Jones

2008 called and they want their handlebars back. Seriously, these are cool as long as you don’t like descending fast. (IMHO) Rode the alloy Titec version.

I’ve always been fascinated with these bars but have never ridden them. I can see how the width would add to control but I wonder how they perform when trying to do wheelies or bunny hops?

I don’t know why polarizing reactions “amaze” you when you consider the deliberate misinformation and oversold hype surrounding the product as demonstrated in this article and in your post, OregonSS. Few people appreciate such exaggeration and some are motivated to comment on it. I appreciate what Jones tries to accomplish with this bar but don’t much care for the lies and hype.

To Mr. Jones and all,

After waiting ~2 weeks I told the manager of my shop to send another email ordering some alloy h-bars for me. The order was received and shipped by the next day. I’m happy to report that whatever the issue was between placing an order with my LBS and Jones fulfilling that order has been corrected. I’m excited to finally rock these bars on my fat tired troll! No other bar would fit the bike as well.

I really appreciate Jeff Jones taking the time to reply to my post and stand behind the name of his company. I will continue to recommend your products, Jeff!

Chris