Santa Cruz Riser Carbon Bar review

Santa Cruz’s Riser Carbon Bar is one of the renowned bike brand’s forays into parts and accessories.

Using knowledge garnered from its extensive carbon frame manufacturing experience, the USA marque has become synonymous with quality.

Santa Cruz also has its own wheel brand – Reserve, made famous by Danny MacAskill hoofing down steps without a tyre installed.

Santa Cruz Riser Carbon Bar specifications

Available in two widths and rises, Santa Cruz’s bar uses a carbon layup "optimised to eat up vibrations and chatter".

Visually, there’s a continuous taper from the centre bulge to the grip zone, designed to specifically tune flex. There’s no grip tape and there are no textured surfaces at the clamp or grip areas.

The subtle logos should work even if you aren’t rocking a Santa Cruz frame and there are equally subtle cut marks to enable you to trim to your preferred width.

The bar also uses a slightly ovalised shape to add strength horizontally while increasing vertical compliance. This is a similar principle to the rival OneUp Carbon Handlebar, but the implementation and result are far more subtle.

One major bonus is having the same lifetime no-questions-asked warranty that you get with Reserve wheels. This is a rarity on mountain bike handlebars, and Santa Cruz has an enviable reputation for honouring any warranty or damage issues quickly and without fuss.

Our test sample (800mm wide, 25mm rise) weighed 224g uncut.

Santa Cruz Riser Carbon Bar performance

Considering the oval shape is designed to add comfort and compliance to absorb bumps, it’s hard to notice any extra give or smoothness compared to rival carbon bars.

In fact, Santa Cruz’s bar is at the stiffer and more solid end of the spectrum.

This brings a precision and reactive steering response similar to Hope’s (also sturdy) bar, but the Hope does a slightly better job of muting trail chatter and bumps. It feels really ‘dead’, whereas this bar is a bit ‘livelier’.

Decent at controlling buzz and tiring vibrations that can make your hands feel a bit numb on the longest rides, this bar feels more solid smashing through rock gardens and properly chunky terrain.

The OneUp Carbon bar is the benchmark for comfort and its design is leagues ahead of Santa Cruz's bar in terms of comfort and absorption.

Being so bendy, OneUp’s bar feel might not be to everyone’s taste. Some will prefer how Santa Cruz’s bar never really flexes on heavy landings or harsh impacts, which heavier riders might find a little disconcerting on the OneUp.

The shape is pretty natural in feel and neutral, although the upsweep feels more than 5-degree equivalents, so wrists tip up a little on the outer edge. It's purely a matter of preference though.

Riders who want a taller rise will welcome that Santa Cruz has just tweaked its bars and introduced a taller 35mm-rise option for fans of high front ends.

Santa Cruz Riser Carbon Bars bottom line

The Santa Cruz Riser Carbon Bar is a very solid and reasonably well-damped bar with a really direct feel.

Its appearance matches well if you have a Santa Cruz bike and want to upgrade to save a few grams.

A price of £150/$170 sounds quite expensive, but it's less so knowing there’s the big bonus of being backed up by Santa Cruz’s famous no-questions-asked lifetime warranty. The finish and graphics should lasts well cosmetically and get scuffed up less than some rivals too.