Burgtec Ride Wide Enduro Handlebar

Once an exotic and often not trusted piece of bling, carbon handlebars have become much more of a mainstream item, at least on higher end builds. They can also be found on race bikes, anywhere from XC to DH. UK component specialist Burgtec has recently refreshed their lineup with a few tasty looking items made from the fantastic plastic, so we decided to check out the intriguingly named Ride Wide Enduro bar and its stable mate, the new Enduro MK2 stem. Read on to find out how we got along.

Initial Impressions

Pulling the Ride Wide bars from the box, we’re met with a very nicely finished product. You can just about make out a little carbon weave here and there, and the black finish is rich, deep, and smooth. The graphics are applied under clear coat, which looks great and should help with durability in this department.

The center of the bar features a rough, rubberized coating to help provide grip for the stem. The ends display markings for cutting your bar down if the full 800mm is a bit much. When it comes to the angles, Burgtec have opted for a fairly classic 9 degrees back and 5 degrees up. The Ride Wide Enduro is only available with 20mm rise.

The Enduro stem is CNCed from a billet of aluminum, and the design has been optimized to reduce weight where possible without sacrificing stiffness. The result is a compact, almost chunky affair that certainly looks like it will be up to the task at hand.

We took delivery of the “Kash Bronze” version, a not-so-subtle name to disguise Burgtec’s true intentions here. The color is uniform and the finish flawless, although we will note that anything Kashima-like is notoriously hard to nail in terms of the actual shade and grade of bronze – as evidenced by FOX’s own failure to produce any two, different items with the same shade of the slippery stuff. In this case, Burgtec strayed on the darker side.

The stem features a classic 4-bolt face plate design, and that leaves us with nothing more to discuss – time to mount up our new cockpit and hit the trails.

On The Trail

Mounting up the Ride Wide bar and Enduro stem was exactly as uneventful as you would hope for, which is a good thing. The parts have clearly been manufactured to high quality standards, the tolerances tight and the hardware smooth and solid. We cut our sample down to 780mm, which did not expose any apparent flaws in the layup or construction process. No frayed fibers sticking out, and no irregularities were observed in the fresh cuts.

The shape is comfortable and ready to shred.

Coming off one of our reference bars, the Race Face SixC, we immediately felt at home on the Ride Wide. 9 back and 5 up are classic angles, and despite dropping down from 35mm rise to 20mm, we had no trouble adjusting. The shape is comfortable and ready to shred.

The Ride Wide Enduro bar is meant to be a bit lighter and less stiff than the DH version, but it is certainly not on the soft side. Whilst it’s always hard to quantify this aspect, we’d say the Ride Wide Enduro is on par with other carbon bars in this category – stiff but not uncomfortable. As for the stem, this particular part is only ever asked to do one thing, and do it well: hold on to the fork and the bar. The Enduro MK2 has performed this task silently and without putting a foot wrong in the 2.5 months we’ve been testing it. It does no harm that it looks pretty sweet while doing it too.

Things That Could Be Improved

Angles, weight, looks, and price are where they need to be, which leaves us only the rise of the Ride Wide Enduro bar to whine a little about – we wish there was also a 35mm option (and the 29er crowd may well be clamoring for the flat/+10mm too). We’d also love to see the MK2 stem get a bit closer to that ever elusive perfect shade of Kash…

Long Term Durability

Both the Wide Wide Enduro bar and the Enduro MK2 stem have come through this test with flying colors in the durability department. There have been no creaks, slips, or other mishaps, and the finish of both items is holding up remarkably well. Based on our experience so far, we’d predict getting a good few seasons of shredding out of this new Burgtec cockpit.

What’s The Bottom Line?

A good bar and stem combo is critical to a good riding experience, as is the peace of mind that comes from knowing that you’re unlikely to suddenly end up on your face as a result of half of your bike’s contact points suddenly failing. With good angles, weight, looks, and price, Burgtec’s new Ride Wide Enduro bar delivers on all points. Pair it up with the super solid Enduro MK2 stem in any one of the 5 rad color options available, and your beloved steed just got a little sicker.

More information at: www.burgtec.co.uk.

About The Reviewer

Johan Hjord loves bikes, which strangely doesn’t make him any better at riding them. After many years spent practicing falling off cliffs with his snowboard, he took up mountain biking in 2005. Ever since, he’s mostly been riding bikes with too much suspension travel to cover up his many flaws as a rider. His 200-pound body weight coupled with unique skill for poor line choice and clumsy landings make him an expert on durability - if parts survive Johan, they’re pretty much okay for anybody. Johan rides flat pedals with a riding style that he describes as "none" (when in actuality he rips!). Having found most trail features to be not to his liking, Johan uses much of his spare time building his own. Johan’s other accomplishments include surviving this far and helping keep the Vital Media Machine’s stoke dial firmly on 11.

Photos by Johan Hjord