Pro Stealth Evo Carbon Handlebar review

When I talk with people about bikes or components I am not always sure we are speaking the same language. When someone refers to how well wheels spin-up I imagine that they must be super experienced, putting thousands of miles on different wheelsets to be able to differentiate between them. That or they simply perceive the difference for some reason that may or may not in fact be real. The same can be said of frame compliance or stiffness. Do we really think our trick new carbon wheels spin-up better than our old ones because some guy reviewing them said so or are we really gifted enough or experienced enough to tell the difference?

Well, one thing we are pretty much experts on is comfort.  Just look around at your next group ride. You might find several people with the same wheels or frames, but when you look at their saddles they are probably different. No matter how well a reviewer pumps up a saddle we know if it is comfortable or uncomfortable pretty quickly. If it is not, we get rid of it and move on. Maybe because they are pretty easy to swap out or maybe because we realize that sit-bone comfort is that important to us.

I find it strange that people are not willing to do this with their handlebars. Other than your sit bones and maybe your feet, nothing comes in contact with the bike longer or has more pressure placed on them than your hands and wrists. Sometimes I will see someone switch to a winged bar, but most of the time the bar that is on the bike is the same one that came with it. This is not me.

Over the past four years I have had 20 different bars on my bikes. Some aluminum, most carbon. Some traditional, some shallow, some wing-shaped.. During this experiment I have been able to determine what I think is important in a handlebar and stem combo.

1. It needs to get my hands in the proper position on the tops, the hoods and the drops.
2. The hood interface needs to be long enough to give me a couple of positions.
3. The bar has to be grooved for cables. I've tried a couple of bars without grooves and I can't stand them.
4. The bar needs to absorb some road noise. I love the stiffness of most of the aluminum bars I have tried, but I can ride longer and harder on carbon bars.
5. They need to be stiff. I can't tell you the number of carbon bars that I have tried that I can feel move when sprinting from the drops.
6. I prefer round tops for climbing. I climb a lot. Mainly because that is pretty much all we have where I live and the winged bars just don't feel as natural when climbing in the tops.

So, now that we know my biases, I will get on with the review of this product....

The very nature of the Stealth Evo Carbon bar makes little sense. When you purchase an integrated bar and stem combo, you better know exactly what you want. If you buy the wrong size there is very little you can do other than move spacers around on your steerer to get any adjustment. Simple things like tilting your bars down or up a little to get the tops or the drops angled perfectly are no longer an option. If you have an injury and need to move the bars - you are out of luck. If you decide to get that Retul fit, the fitter is most likely going to tell you to get new bars and the fitting process will be more challenging. So if you are considering integrated bars, make sure you know what size you need.                                                 

Also, these things are not very light. A good bar/stem combo will come in quite a bit lighter. My 130/44cm version came in at 415g versus the published 350 for the 42cm version.

So to this point, it does not make a lot of sense to put these on your list. Oh yeah, did I mention the price? $700 is the average retail price I have found. If you dig around online you can get them in the low $400 range. Why would I even consider these things?

Well just look at them. Have you ever seen more carbon fiber awesomeness in your entire life? Seriously, the pictures do not do these things justice. I am a big Campy fan because their stuff is closer to art than SRAM or Shimano, but these things are absolutely gorgeous. Chapeau Shimano, well done. Aside from the aesthetics, there were several other things I thought I could get from the bars.

First, the bars have separate channels under the wings on both sides to help with the cable routing. I was a little concerned that they may not work well with the Super Record shifters, but the Gore cables that I used routed beautifully allowing for nice bend radiuses...err radii.

Next, looking at the bars I knew I was going to get a nice big platform for the hoods. I can move my hands around throughout the ride and every position feels nice and solid.

The bars do not have a huge drop. In fact, they are somewhat shallow and there was a reason that I thought this might be good which I will cover later. However, I have big hands and shallow bars typically give me problems when my hands are forward in the drops - my writs will hit the tops. Even with the relatively short reach that is not the case with these bars.

You have probably noticed that I have wrapped these bars all the way to the stem. They are designed to be ran without tape on the winged section. However, I like them better this way. I like the extra absorption and even with gloves on, I find the bare carbon to be a little slick. As an FYI, even with the 44cm version, I was easily able to wrap the bars with a regular set of Specialized S-Wrap cork tape which is my favorite.

On the road, I can't say enough about the performance of the bars. My big gripe with carbon bars is that I have been unable to find any that were stiff enough when sprinting in the drops. The reasons I think these work are two-fold. I feel that there is increased stiffness obtained from the integrated stem and bar shape and I also think the slightly shallower drop stiffens them up as well. These are the first carbon bars that I can't feel moving under heavy load. Next, the number of hand positions on this bar are amazing and they all seem to work. The bar is tapered in the bends between the tops and hoods and it works extremely well. I simply can't overstate how nice this is during long training rides. I do most of my training solo so this allows me to get further from the brakes than I would during a group ride and I do appreciate the flexability.

I had read in other reviews that the bar does not absorb road noise. I can't disagree more. There is no doubt that this carbon bar will provide more road comfort than aluminum bars. Are there carbon bars that do a better job than these? Probably, but I simply can't quantify that and tell which ones do... and I have tried most. What I can say is that these bars take off enough vibration to the point that I have yet to have hand or wrist fatigue on a ride.

Are these the prefect road bars? Not quite. There are a few things that I don't like about them.

1. The flat tops are great on the flats, but I still prefer the round bars climbing. It is simply a more natural hand position for me.
2. Mounting bike computers requires the purchase of a $70 computer mount that bolts to the bottom of the stem. While it is a clean look, it would put an SRM headunit about 4 feet in front of your bike. While this is an exaggeration of course, it is still an annoyance for anyone not using a stem mounted computer. Another issue is mounting lights on the bar. Fortunately my Dinnotte light has a mount that will work with the flat bar, but barely. It is not ideal.
3. If you want to mount clip-on aero bars to these, you have to drop a ton of money for the bolt-on version from Pro.

Other than those issues, I think these are fantastic bars. From a performance perspective they are the best bars I have ever owned. Fortunately, I have been fit on my bike and feel confident that my position will not be changing anytime soon. I quadruple checked my measurements and got the bars where I wanted - at least as close as I could with the Roubaix cap. I would highly recommend these bars to anyone who looks for the same things in a handlebar that I do.

-T