Ask a cyclist about handlebar compliance and you'll probably get a mixed bag of responses. To some, Handlebar compliance (stiffness) is everything. To others, it's a detail that goes overlooked. So, it begs the questions: does handlebar compliance matter, and can riders really tell the difference between handlebars with varying stiffness? We wanted to find out.
For this test, we ventured up North to visit our friends at Faction Bike Studio just outside of Montreal. The team at Faction did extensive work in their lab to measure the compliance (stiffness) of 42 handlebars. We selected four handlebars and challenged two riders to blind test each, then guess the level of compliance of the handlebar.
