Back to Back to Back: Enve DH Carbon vs Pro Tharsis DI2 Carbon vs Spank Spike Vibrocore Handlebars.

1 – Visuals: The first impression you, or anyone else, will get of the bars and the most subjective part of this review. The Enve DH bars have that classic matte-and-white understated styling that just goes with everything and brings a superbike feel to any build. The Pro bars have a murdered-out all black look which looks at home on any bike but doesn’t scream style. The Spank, the only alloy bar on test, comes in a variety of colours so can highlight any custom build or retain a subtle OEM colour-coded look.

2 – Price: The sticking point for most of us mere mortals who pay to ride, rather than the other way round! 
At £90 the Spank bars come in at the lowest price, followed by the Pro Tharsis at £120 and the Enve in excess of £160.

3 – Feel: How does it all translate on the trail? 

The Pro bars are exactly as you’d expect: light and incredibly stiff. The bonus of it being one of the few bars with recesses for DI2 cables is commendable, but even on a trail bike their rigidity was to the point of discomfort; for smashing out timed runs their trail feedback was excellent, but they were hardly a comfortable companion for long days in the saddle.

Enve are one of those brands where the reputation invariably precedes all else and that rep is, well... enviable. There’s a subtlety to these where they feed back exactly what’s going on downstairs without the irritating ‘buzz’ in a lot of other handlebars which invariably saps energy from your arms, loosens your grip and is all-round unpleasant.

The real surprise of the test, however, was the Spank offering. I’m always wary of a gimmick, as all bikers need to be with the new standards inundating the market, but it was genuinely excellent. Granted, it pays a weight penalty compared to the skinnier carbon counterparts on test, but circa 100g for the incredible feel these bars provide is a trade I’ll snatch with both hands. The aforementioned irritating chatter is refined by the clever foam insert within the bars and fed back as a much more manageable rumble. These bars don’t detach you from the trail, but rather report it back in comfortable doses in a manner only the very best suspension setups usually can. It’s no silver bullet but, paired with the same well-set suspension and grips tested with all of these bars, made a noticeable difference both on long rocky descents and general trail feel; it’s akin to replacing a dodgy front-end bearing you never knew you had.

The Rankings:

No prizes for guessing the Spank Spike Vibrocore comes out on top. Like when dropper posts first came into play, there’s a feel to this bar that we’ll happily pay the weight penalty and wonder how we ever coped before. The vast choice of colours and low price are an added bonus to make this bar a no-brainer for my next build.

Enve DH comes a second when all three factors come into account. However, they remain the undisputed kings of performance and would still be the bar I reach for if I was counting grams and milliseconds on a world cup build. Weekend warriors and penny-pinchers need not apply!

The Pro Tharsis should feel no shame in being bested by the two other bars on test. If the engineers called me a fat, lazy hypocrite who needed to work on his fitness rather than blame a set of carbon handlebars I’d have to agree. However, for a pricey bar it lacks the ‘bling’ factor of Enve or the performance-enhancing feel from the Spank bars. It’s a tidy bar, make no mistake, with the built in DI2 option keeping any cockpit clean. On a personal level, the trail feedback and high price would make it a no from me as an upgrade, but they probably wouldn’t be the first component to change if they came with a factory build.