Project 9er - Contacts

In choosing a bar for Project 9er we were looking for a flat bar with plenty of sweep. The Noir T30 Carbon bar has been getting a good wrap amongst riders, especially 29er pilots, for its generous sweep leading to comfortable hand positioning. Its a flat bar which also helps in keeping the front end of the low, something which is particularly needed more now with tall 9ers.

Prior to Project 9er the T30 graced another bike ensuring rigorous testing

An additional to the Truvativ bars now are the semi integrated bar end plugs, which is a tidy feature. In learning from our mistakes last year we are running our lock-on grips with just one, the inside, lock-on end attached. Your probably asking, why? After numerous incidents in which involved bar tapping trees and exits off the bike we had a look at the route cause. Like most cats and their whiskers, us mountain bikers use the placement of our hands to give us a feel for the width of our bars and the on coming trail width. Hence with a little extra bar sticking out, our hand placement told us the bars were not as wide as they were. But the proof is in the pudding, since removing the outside lock-on and sliding our grips to the end of the bars we haven't experienced any unwanted superman moments.

At the other end it is pretty standard fair with Shimano's latest XT pedals. While there is nothing quite like the XTR version, the XT variant gets very close. Solid engagement and a firm feel, out of the box they just feel right.