Your favorite upright/swept handlebar for road and light offroading

[Andy Beichler]

I ride mostly road but would like to preserve my ability to occasionally go off road for non-gonzo type riding-dirt paths and easy trails.I was ready to order either an Albatross or Soma Oxford as I have had both in the past and found them to be OK for off road and great for the road. I especially like how they are relatively flat through the curve toward the center so I can use that transition area as a grip when I stand to pedal. However, neither are in stock at a reasonable price anywhere.

Since I can't order what I wanted right away, I am looking at other options and curious what other folks use. The Velo Orange Granola Bar looks interesting. It is priced right and they are offering 20% off right now.  What are you using?   

Note-I have a VO Seine bar.  It would be fine for only off road. On the road, I am looking for something with more sweep.

Thanks,
Andy

[mark e]

Soma Osprey bars on my Homer have been my favorite bars to date. The sweep has been perfect for the road and gravel trails and never get ant hand numbness. Set them up 5 years ago and have not touched them.

I was looking at the Seine bar for another bike that has a 31.8 stem. Only 5 degrees less sweep and wider seam like a good fit for me because I like really wide drop and alt bars. 

[James McGregor]

I like the Rivendell Choco-moose or Choco (flipped) bars for this kind of riding.

[Bruce Byker James]

I also like the Soma Osprey, but the one I use the most is the Soma Clarence with the Cletus extensions, which I use as a grip area for climbing or quick take-off at a traffic light. The Clarence is the same sweep as the Seine bar, though, so maybe not the ticket for you.

If you're okay with some rise, the 55mm rise Dimension Urban Cruiser has 40 degree backsweep and is really inexpensive. I just saw it on Whatbars, but haven't tried it myself.

[Dan Sullivan]

The albatross for me was fine if it's flipped and I had road brakes on it as I rode 90% with my hands on the outside of the bends, not back where the grips were.  For me for riding on the grips I like a mid-sweep bar like the Wavy from Riv or the Curvy from VO.  Recently put the latter on a bike I built for my son to commute on and am thinking of getting some for my RB-T.

If you want more sweep I have a set of mounted but otherwise unused Sycip Wonder Bars you could have for cheap, say $15 plus whatever shipping costs. (This just came to me as I was replying to this post, didn't come here to sell you something so no problem if you ignore me.  That said if you want pics and specs pm me).

Dan

near Madison, WI

[Danny]

I'm a fan of flipped Albatross, but I recently tried some flipped VO Granola bars on my Homer and really enjoyed them. If you aren't in a rush to make a bar swap, Riv has the new Billie/Wavie bar coming sometime, maybe soon? Haven't heard an ETA for it though. Just another option that I'm excited about.

Danny

Madison, WI

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[Jason Fuller]

Granola is a great bar, but hard to compare to an Albatross because the latter truly has different hand positions while the Granola really only has the one... you can kind of rest your hands in the forward 'hooks' but it's not something you'd want to be doing a lot in my experience. I would consider the Choco with a longer stem if a stem is also in the budget!  Basically a better Albatross, with the one downside of needing quite a long stem to work for most. 

The new 31.8, wider Billie bar that's coming would probably be excellent if you also would like a little more width, but not sure how long the wait is for it. 

[Jay]

I have the Granola bars on my Fargo and while I've ridden it mainly off-road (nothing rowdy), I've been on 2+ hr road rides and found it to be fine.  I think it's more about whether the bar is a good fit for you, on your particular bike, and have it dialled in as best as possible, and then the bar is fine road or off-road.  I have narrow shoulders and don't find the Granola to be too wide.  I position my hands anywhere from all the way back, to rest on the brake levers.  I don't like reaching all the way forward on the front of the bar.  I tried Albatross bars and couldn't get them to feel comfortable.  I still have them though and will experiment some time in the future to see if I can get them dialled.

[Danny]

I think of Granolas as just slightly flared Albatrosses, and I find that I have pretty much the same 3 positions on both bars. I've got long arms and am very comfortable riding all the way forward in the hooks on both. Like I said, I do ride them both flipped though, and it works well for me. Not trying to dismiss Jason's experience with Granolas, I think it really just comes down to personal preference. I think the best advice is just to try as many as you can until you find something that works for you.

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[Andy Beichler]

I have a Soma Clarence, too. I like it for offroad, but I never got along with it for the road.  I have contemplated the Cletus extensions but never actually ordered them. I may try them on my Seine bar.  As far as I can tell, the Seine bar is just the Velo Orange Crazy bar without the extensions.

[Andy Beichler]

I appreciate the offer, but the Wonder Bars are not quite what I am looking for.

[Dan Sullivan]

No problem!

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[Bruce F. Byker James]

I ended up with the Clarence with Cletus extensions after first trying the VO Crazy Bars (version 2 with less sweep), and finding them too wide and not swept enough. They’re perfect in my tandem, though.

[Bill Shaw]

Regarding the new Wavie/Billie bar, James at Riv said there had been some production delays with the new bar, so it's currently looking like a late December or early January delivery. They'll have more info on the site in a month or so. It's based on the billie/albatross and wavie bars that are really great but it falls somewhere in the middle. 

Looking forward to the release. 

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[Steve]

Andy, I have ridden with an Albatross (upright and flipped), a VO Granola and a Billie. All are great bars.  The Albatross (upright) and Biilie are both in current use. The Granola is awaiting my next Riv; a Sam Hillborne. I'm planning to try it flipped. I enjoyed the flipped Alba but with a 50mm rise it was a bit too low for me.

Bottom line; all three work nicely with comfortable fore and aft positions on and off road. Note that the Granola is only available with a 31.8 clamp area

Steve In AVL

[John Johnson]

I love the Albatross bars. I keep coming back to them on my bikes... They really are just right for a lot of riding.

I also REALLY like the Tosco bars (tried Boscos, didn't like 'em) for touring and offroading. I have some of the 600mm wide ones, which are just right IMO (and still have a 25.4 clamp area). 

But I'm with some of the other guys about being pre-stoked on the new Riv offering. Can't wait to see what it'll be - but something in between the wavie and the billie sounds excellent.

john

[Andy Beichler]

I am now leaning toward a set of Soma Port Mann bars.  They look similar to the Choco bars but they are 650mm wide and have a 31.8 center.  I have several different 31.8 stems for the bike I am thinking of using them on, my Breezer Radar Expert.  I plan to decide sometime in the next day or so.  

[Charlie]

Another vote of confidence for the VO granola bar here. I went through a handful of bars before settling on the granola and they've been exactly what I was looking for. 

Previously had Jones H-bars (really liked these), crust juan martin (decent), and a handful of drop bars on a surly straggler and the granola was the best of the bunch IMO. 

I also rode across the state of pennsylvania with these bars and didn't have any hand or wrist issues - Ergon grips go really nicely with them. 

They started on a surly straggler and now are on a VO polyvalent - it sounds like we do similar riding so they might be worth a try with the discount. 

Best of luck on your search - charlie in PA

[Spencer Robinson]

I like Albatross bars, I flip them on my Sam because I can’t get them low enough to be comfortable with the 4 bolt stem that seems to keep the alloy ones from slipping off road.  My only wish is that they would have just a small bit more flare.

On my rigid MTB, I am running steel Albatross but I cold set (bent) them so the flare at the ends is 61cm compared to the stock 55cm. Just that little bit made a huge difference in the feel. I suspect that you could “flare” the alloy ones but I am scared to try it. The steel bars don’t seem to be as prone to slipping for me.

On the Sam, with the bars flipped, I feel like I am getting more use of the bars than I was with drop bars….realizing that I was only down in the drops a small percentage of the time and like a lot of folks, I was on the hoods most of the time.

On Tuesday, November 25, 2025 at 1:23:38 PM UTC-5 Andy Beichler wrote:

[Andy Beichler]

This morning I got tired of the mental experiments and ordered the Granola bars (and some grips, a seat post and fenders) from Velo Orange.  At 20% and getting my shipping for free, I feel like it was the right call.  Worse case scenario, I don't like the bars as much as I thought I would and I pass them on to someone else.  I'll let folks know how it goes.  

[JohnS]

Good choice with the VO Granola bars. I used them when I refurbished of my friend's 90's Trek earlier this year. He' really likes them. I liked a bar with 31.8 clamp area with 1 1/8 thread less stems, so many options in that combination. I used the VO happy stem to get the bars up for him.

JohnS

[Jay]

Looking forward to hear how you get on with them.

I've noticed lately that I may get soreness in my wrist when using swept bars.  With my back, neck and arms in a really comfortable position, I reach for the grips, perhaps to use the brake levers.  And my wrist is cocked outwards to meet the angle of the bars.  That's when I want my hands relatively 'flat' from the ground, however, if I rotate my wrist so my knuckles are less pointed up, more pointed down (not all the way down), then the wrist is at a straight-ish angle.  But my hands like to be palm down / back of hand up (again, not exactly that way).  I've tweaked the bar a lot (tried other bars before), seems like this can be part of that ongoing process of adjustments until you get it just right.