The Profile Canta is a £429.99 aero handlebar designed to “maximise the possibilities of an aero road position within racing regulations”.
Available in exceptionally narrow widths, the new bar prioritises enabling riders to adopt an aggressive aero position, with broad tops and toed-in hooks.
This is no Speeco Aero Breakaway, but scratch beneath the surface and you’ll see the bar pushes right at the fringes of the UCI’s rules, which were updated in 2023.
The Canta is a long-standing name in the Profile line-up. The previous iteration was an Ergo-shaped bar with aero tops, offered with a matching carbon-wrapped stem.
The new Canta is a radical departure from the outgoing model. So what sets them apart?
Long, narrow, fast
Aero tops are a must on a go-fast bar, and the Canta goes all-in with a deep profile. These kick forward sharply, extending the reach of the bar to 90mm.
That figure is pretty stretchy for a modern drop bar – the reach of most bars sits somewhere in the 60 to 75mm range.
There are bars with a bigger reach out there, but they’re few and far between.
I really liked the sadly discontinued Bontrager Elite Aero VR-C, which was a touch longer at 93mm. The Bontrager Pro VR-C is longer still, with 100mm of reach, although its availability appears to be winding down too.
Where the reach of the Profile bar is extended due to the notably forward-angled tops, both Bontrager bars accomplish their extended reach with long ramps.
Both approaches have their merits but, in Profile’s case, the brand says the forward kick of the tops also provides a larger platform on which you can rest your forearms when adopting an aero position.
Moving forward, the ramps are gently angled inward to exaggerate the toed-in hood position favoured by many riders.
The bar then kicks out to a handsome 10-degree outward flare in the hooks. This offers a slightly broader position in the drops without looking ungainly.
Get with the 21st century, Jack
As is de rigueur on contemporary handlebars, brake cables or hoses can be routed internally, with cables either exiting through or on either side of the stem.
Unfortunately for me – a luddite still slumming it with 20th-century bike tech – the bar is designed with modern electronic groupsets in mind, with no provision to internally route gear cables.
As such, I will have to make do with running my outmoded gear cables around the back of the helpfully squared-off rear edge of the tops when I fit these this bar to my Giant TCR.
The bar is available in 330, 360, 390 and 420mm widths.
Although I flirted briefly with a 36cm bar on my blue bike, and like the idea of free speed, I backed out and went for the 390mm-wide option.
I’m simply not as brave as my daring colleague, Simon von Bromley, who rolled around on a daft 26cm-wide bar in the summer of 2021.
So, 39cm feels like a happy medium that will balance aero and comfort considerations well enough for my needs.
Still, the handful of riders reading this who take part in UCI-sanctioned road races wishing to push their setups to the limit will be pleased to see the addition of such narrow options.
Subtly cool
Finally, this is a small point, but I appreciate the Canta’s tastefully restrained graphics – or rather, the complete absence of graphics. Stealth is aesthetic wealth, in my eyes.
The bar is light – if not extraordinarily so – at 224g. An ENVE SES Aero weighs a claimed 205g and a Zipp SL-70 Aero 220g in the same size.
That’s splitting hairs in the context of a whole bike and – as the aero weenies will be at pains to point out in the comments – the potential aero gains of an optimised position will far outweigh a tiny weight saving.
One final question remains – will this conclude my painful hunt for the perfect handlebar? The Canta was not originally on my shortlist but intrigue got the better of what should have been a pragmatic decision. Stay tuned for more.
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