Ritchey Comp ErgoMax handlebar

This new Ritchey Comp Ergomax handlebar is a great upgrade for your gravel or adventure bike, offering plenty of width at the drops thanks to a large flare for aiding stability when travelling across loose terrain. It's a decent weight, too, and all for not a bad price.

• Pros: Loads of hand positions, plenty of stiffness without being overly harsh
• Cons: Limited clamping space either side of the stem for lights and suchlike

We've seen quite a few of the latest gravel bikes coming with flared handlebars and I find it makes a lot of difference to the handling when you are really motoring across varying surfaces.

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The Ergomax is available in four widths, the 42cm option we have here, plus 40cm, 44cm and 46cm. This is measured from centre to centre at the top of the drops, but the Ritcheys have a 12-degree drop flare top to bottom each side, plus the drops flare out at an angle of 3 degrees sideways, which increases their size (to 50.3cm on the 42cm) outer to outer at the bottom of the drops. You can see the full dimensions and shape here.

This gives you quite a wide stance which seems to make the steering more stable when the ground is moving around underneath you, while keeping the lively feel of a narrower bar when sat up on the hoods.

From the 31.8mm diameter clamping area there is a 10mm rise up to the tops, which gives you a slightly more relaxed, upright position; if you don't want to go any higher you could always whip out a 10mm spacer from beneath your stem – after all, fewer spacers means better stiffness.

The clamping part of the bar is only 80mm wide, and once you've taken into account the width of a stem that doesn't leave you much room for fitting light brackets or computers, which could be an issue.

The tops have a flat aero section to them which gives you a great platform to rest your hands on, and they also sweep back by 5 degrees, giving you shorter reach to the bar.

The drop shape is curved rather than having any flat sections, but the radii change continuously to create quite a shallow drop of 128mm and a reach of 73mm. This makes them more usable, even if you aren't that flexible to spend a lot of time crouched over.

Comfort-wise things are pretty good. You want a little bit of give for when you are rattling across bumping surfaces and that's what you get from the 6061 aluminium alloy tubing used here. It just takes the edge off but still feels plenty stiff enough when you're out of the saddle or riding along on the road.

With Shimano now offering a bar end plug control box for Di2, Ritchey has future-proofed this bar by drilling a hole in the bottom of the drop to allow the wires to come out and pass beneath your bar tape.

The Ergomax is a well made bar and a pretty decent weight too. This 42cm came in at 313g on our scales, which is 7g lighter than Ritchey claims.

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It costs £52, which is good value for money when taking into account the quality and everything else. A look around the internet shows that the Deda Gravel 100 bar is lighter than the Comp Ergomax – 260g claimed – but costs £94.99. That matches very well against Ritchey's lighter, more expensive WCS Ergomax, weighing 270g at £94. We tested the WCS Venturemax road bar a couple of years back, and that's now £89, while the Comp Venturemax is £47.

On the whole, I really like the Comp Ergomax. It offers a good all-round package for your gravel bike or any other where you want a bit of width added to the handlebar.

Verdict

Loads of hand positions and a quality piece of kit for your adventure bike