Customer Review: Race Face SixC Handlebar

Race Face has quick become one of the more popular brands we have to offer. The Race Face SixC Handlebars rank among the most popular of their trusty line of parts. When choosing a new set of bars we strongly suggest looking into one of our shop favorites. Jun Sunseri made the commitment to a par and sent over this review for us to look at. Hopefully this can help you make a decision finding your perfect handlebar
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This handlebar is replacing a similar bar with only 10mm rise. I kept *just* tagging my knee on super-tight switchbacks with that previous version, so I got this one because I liked the greater rise and, truth be told, it matched the obnoxious orange stickers on my Santa Cruz frame. Oh vanity.

It also is a very nice match for the Race Face Atlas stem and their interface was a particular selling point for me. The bars have a lightly roughed center portion to keep them from slipping in the clamp zone, which is confidence inspiring when one is yarding on these on a pedal mashing climb or white-knuckling something ill-advised on the way down.

I'll close with some final thoughts on the bar's geometry. Obviously 800mm is wide and I've now officially found my limit on how wide a handlebar I'm going to try and manage on the tight and twisties. I wore armored knuckles riding lesser-used single track in Santa Cruz because threading those trees could be tight -- and that was with a 740mm bar! But what I really noticed with these was upsweep and backsweep. The 5 degree upsweep is pretty standard and so I've not much to say. But the 8 degree backsweep I actually noticed in comparison with the 800mm Enve handlebar on my single speed which supposedly has only one degree more, at 9 degrees. Both bars have exactly the same brake levers and Ergon GE1 grips, but they just feel different.

My hands get numb faster on these bars, and that surprised me on a full squish bike compared with the hardtail single speed. Maybe it's because the Race Face bars have a larger diameter at the clamp and are just more rigid, so less forgiving? Maybe I need to keep playing with the GE1 grips to get a more optimal angle? Or, maybe I should be less "princess and the pea?" I don't for a minute regret the purchase, but it's an interesting thing for me to keep sussing out.