Ritchey WCS Carbon Trail Rizer handlebar

RITCHEY HAVE ALWAYS made distinctive bars and their WCS Trail Rizer is true to form. Rather than bending from the centre, the Rizer sweeps back from the front edge.

This gives a relaxed wrist angle but less rearward weight displacement than a conventional bar. Typically for Ritchey there's a lot of upsweep at the outer ends, which twists your hand/wrist position and brings your elbows up. The high tips also leave it tall for a bar with a low central rise. This all means you may need to do a lot of twisting and tweaking to find a comfortable position - and some of our testers never did. If you like the shape though, it's a structurally stiff and purposeful-feeling bar with plenty of feedback and a competitively low weight considering you get reinforced metal tips.

Weight 204g

Width 740mm

Rise 15mm

Backsweep 9°

Upsweep 6°

PRICE 190$

Cannondale Trail SL 29 SS

The fat aluminium tubes are a constrast to the skinny items seen elsewhere in the test, but this rigid Cannondale uses them to create one of the most old-school - and lightest - rides here.

READ MORE >>

KONA SHRED

With a reputation for no-nonsense ruggedness and a background in the always progressive and punishing riding of Canada, Kona have been building hardcore hardtails for longer than almost anyone else. The Shred is the most expensive bike on test but it’s a proper trail tank.

READ MORE >>

SKS Airbuster CO2 inflator

The alloy Airbuster has a large knob so you can regulate the flow of gas, a mechanical stop to prevent the cartridge being pierced in transit and a dust cap to keep the valve free of debris. While it works with Presta and Schrader valves, switching between them requires a fiddly change of the valve head. The thin rubber sleeve doesn’t provide much protection from cold spent canisters. You can’t insert much of the valve into the inflator head, so you have to be careful to avoid leaks. Price $33 w/16g cartridge

READ MORE >>