Ritchey WCS Butano Handlebar

The Ritchey WCS Butano Handlebar not only looks great, with its excellent finish, but also offers loads of comfortable hand positions for gravel/adventure riding or for long jaunts on the road.

• Pros: Shallow drop means they are accessible for all; great quality
• Cons: Minimal grooves leave the cables proud of the bar

The WCS range is the showcase for Ritchey's top end kit and the paint finish makes the Butano look and feel like it is carbon fibre. That finish is hardwearing too – it takes a lot to scratch it and make it look tatty.

> Find your nearest dealer here

The Butano is a bar designed for gravel and adventure use, primarily thanks to the curved shape and flared drops. Flared drop bars for off-road riding have become commonplace: you can ride in your normal narrow road position on the hoods, but when you are descending at speed or attacking a fast technical section in the drops, the wider stance means you have better stability by distributing your body weight wider.

> road.cc Gravel Bike of the Year 2019/2020

Like many, Ritchey has gone for a 12-degree flare either side, which means that the bar's width increases outside to outside from the tops to the drops by around 5cm in total.

The drop is just 118mm from the top to the bottom of the bar, so you don't need to be super-flexible to make full use of them.

For comfort, it's not just the drops that are flared. The top of the bar either side of the main clamping area also kicks back by 4 degrees, putting these areas in a closer position to you for a more upright riding style when climbing or taking it easy, without affecting the overall reach figures for when you're riding on the hoods.

The bar is made from 7075 grade aluminium alloy and offers all the stiffness you need without feeling overly harsh when riding on rough roads or gravel.

The clamping area for the stem and that of the gear shifters has a sandpaper effect for grip, and I had no slippage issues with either.

The only thing I would prefer to see are slightly wider grooves to run cables and hoses, because they are quite shallow on the Butano and end up sitting proud of the bar. I positioned the cables one in front of the other underneath towards the front of the bar to avoid having to wrap my hands around them, but some bars have a cleaner finish, such as the Deda Gravel100 RHM.

In fact, I swapped the Deda bar out of the gravel bike for this Ritchey, and the quality of the finish and ride is very similar. The Deda is more expensive at £94.99, but it's also lighter by 30g, if that is important.

> How to find the best drop handlebars for you + 8 of the best

Another very good bar I have been using is the Easton EA70 AX, which comes with plenty of clamping space for all your bits and bobs along with flared drops for £79.99.

There are other cheaper options out there, but taking the performance, fit and finish into consideration, I think the WCS Butano offers decent value for money, especially when paired up with other WCS components.

If the WCS is too rich for you but you like the design, there is a much cheaper Comp version which starts at around £40. 

Verdict

Very comfortable bar with plenty of hand positions that also looks the business