Carbon drop bars?

I really like Ritchey bars, they just seem that bit more ergonomic than others. Flat top, backwards sweep, shallow drop.

The WCS Streem in carbon is £175 I think, I'd be having those 👍

Edit: d'oh, over budget, only Bikeinn have them for less than £200 but presumably you'd pay tax on that. You see them advertised as cheap as £33 quid but when you hit the link it's always the cheaper alloy ones

I agree, the Ritchey Streem are awesome, I've got the WCS carbon on my road bike. I also have the bogo alloy ones on my CX race bike as I like the shape so much, if / when I build up a 2nd CX racer it'll have the same bars on.

But to keep on budget I'd be looking at these Prime Carbon Aero , I'm impressed with the various Prime bits and bobs I have on a few bikes.

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Lauff Smoothie..?  It's sold as a 'Gravel' bar but I'm not sure that this would matter.  The shape looks really nice,  lesser drop than many, slightly flattened hand position on the drop.

mmmm

Lauf shape looks good

The Prime carbon aero bars are really good for the money. No flex and pretty comfortable. Bear in mind I can’t sprint for toffee.

I'm also a fan of how Ritchey bars are shaped. The aluminium ones are pretty comfy anyway IME.

In the past I was keen on carbon bars for the damping, but with bigger tubeless tyres now I don't think they're so important.

Way over budget, but I bought some Enve compact bars for my road bike a while back and they're quite lovely. I'm sure they're not remotely worth the price and any benefit over the previous FSA alloy compacts will be marginal - they do ride smoother, I think - but they look great and the little rubber things that roll over the bottom of the tape instead of bar plugs are really neat. Utterly self indulgent purchase, absurdly expensive, but very, very nice.

I too have had Ritchey Stream. In fact one broke but probably saved my wrist when I hit a car. Bar snapped and wrist snapped too. The Alloy version on another bike was not quite the same shape (but probably would have been worse for my wrist and arm!). Running an ergo EC90 on another bike that is decent enough. Be careful of the width of the round section. Giant aero bars are not wide enough to fix mounts.

I like the flex of carbon and narrower tyres. In fact I rode 100km on some 22mm tubs with the EC90's yesterday and they were comfortable.

There aren't really any bad choices. Ergo has moved to continuous sweep, which is less critical for set up. Buy on logo colour and matching to the frame 😉

I've got some mtb bars from Exotic, and they do these (and others):

https://www.carboncycles.cc/?s=0&c=59&p=985&

I've had my bars for nearly ten years, and I'm not the lightest, or gentlest rider. They are still brilliant.

Roval Terra carbon have most of the features you are after.

Zipp SL-70 XPLR fit the bill but aren’t carbon. Although they are gravel bars they only have a very slight flare (since you mention that might be desirable). If you don’t want flare, they do standard road shapes too in carbon

They are quite shallow and short and are available in the width that you require.

They come in various flavours and budgets and can quite often be had on deal.

Been using Prime Primavera carbon bars for a few years, so comfy I've never bothered taping them.

I've been using Bontrager XXX for several years and find them great.  Better than the Easton bars they replaced.

Ritchey +1

I use the alloy version of the Evocurve (compact bar with a backswept top section).

The carbon version is spendy though, the alloy version is pricey enough! I don't think you'd miss it being carbon though, they're very compliant (and pull some magic to do it without feeling noodly in the drops).

I don't really miss the flare on the road, it seems to make more difference off-road where I'm leant forwards pushing down on the bars, on-road it's more neutral.

Before that I had bontranger Race-xxx-lite which were rubbish, the top corner was practically a right angle, which meant there was no way to hold the drops and they flexed horribly. They were the purchase that put me off ever buying anything based solely on it being 'carbon and therefore better' ever again. That was 15 years ago, so they've probably updated that specific bar by now.

so comfy I’ve never bothered taping them.

Say what!?

You're not in the velodrome now mate.

Have got EC90s on the winter/trainer and Ribble’s Level aero ones on the roadie/gravel.  Both are a compact drop and short reach which suits my fit. No flare

All I can really say is they’re lighter and a bit more comfortable than alloy ones, and as fat (19st) bloke, I haven’t broken them…

If you want alternative to common mainstream brands,  get on AliExpress and check out Asiacom carbon bars. They're an established company now.  I think they do 10 different styles of dropbars on their Taobao store.

I have their 35mm carbon MTB riser bars on a couple of Trail bikes (they're DH rated apparently)

Well outside your budget, but these are the fastest carbon drop bars available they’ll be banned by the UCI in due course.

https://www.speeco.tech/abb-aero-break-away-handlebars/

not exactly a looker, but will get you aero.

I'd come to similar conclusions myself, e.g. getting bars with longer reach but then fitting a shorter stem, keeping hoods in the same place.

Have just been too lazy to research it and too cheap to pony up for multiple new sets of bars 🙄

U.S.E Summits sound like they would fit the bill, but at 225 are slightly over budget..  I got mine from the outlet store for about 40 quid I think, so keep your eye out 😁

thanks everyone. Some good ideas there.

Quite a few Ritchey recommendations. I used the Ritchey WCS alloy bar - still spendy £80ish but similar weight to the carbon. This was on a commuter and I did not want carbon.

if you fancy a longer reach and shorter stem then the Prime bars should be an option.  I'm running their lightweight bars.  Don't recommend them if you use the drops though as there isn't very much.

Those ABB bars are taking the piss at  €1700