What do the manufacturers say about it? How does that compare to your own feelings about it? Tell us what the product is for and who it's aimed at. VerdictĪn excellent way to get more control and comfort for rougher rides, with lots of space for bar toys

Factor in the lifetime warranty and it's very hard to look past the Coast for your gravelly-bikepacking needs. Indeed, £70 is a cracking price for any drop bar. There's an excellent roundup of the current wide-bar herd over at – and as you'll see from the prices, the Coast at £70 is one of the cheapest wide bars.

How exactly you calculate 'normal wear and tear' on an alloy handlebar or stem I'm not sure, so you should be good forever, basically. The T&Cs exclude normal wear and tear as well as impact damage, as you'd expect. Lifetime warranties are usually reserved for high-end carbon components, so this is a good thing for consumers, and a sign that PNW is confident about quality.

PNW is – I believe – the first bike component manufacturer to offer a lifetime warranty on its entire range of alloy components. > Buyer’s Guide: 23 of the best bikepacking bags The wide clamping area also helps here for fixing straps. Hitting 57kph in semi-darkness should be pant-filling, but the Coast kept things under a level of control and gave my brain confidence to deal with more pressing issues of physics than steering.Īnother benefit of being w-i-d-e is the ability to carry luggage up front in a bar roll, and you'll be hard-pressed to max out the storage space afforded with the Coast. Local familiarity with what was coming up and supple 55mm tyres biting into the surface certainly helped, but what led me into temptation was the sense of control the Coast afforded. My first outing on the Coast bar was later than anticipated, leaving me descending in freezing air through semi-darkness with a meagre 'be-seen' light doing next to nothing to aid navigation. In Craigvinean Forest above Dunkeld there's a long gravel road descent that averages 7% and hits over 15%, with predictable sweeping turns of varying sharpness. Suffice to say, the hefty 31.8mm clamping area and materials didn't give any notable sensation of flex, even under wrenching climbs or bombed descents. With width comes leverage, which can then be a drawback if it leads to bar flex and fuzzy steering feedback. This means you don't have to move your hands far at all to change positions for better braking, grip, comfort and so on, and if you do need to get in the drops for braking or to be a bit more out of the wind, 105mm isn't likely to overly extend your lower back. Out at the ends is where things matter in a drop bar, and PNW has gone for a short reach (65mm) and a short drop (105mm). PNW took that thinking to the Coast bar, with two options – 480mm hood to hood as tested here, and a massive 520mm for the longer-limbed. PNW does a range of mountain bike bars, where wider has been better since the world got over the 1980s addiction to bar ends and realised leverage is king in keeping your wheel tracking through the rough stuff. The Coast bar is, on the face of it, a simple idea: go wider and shallower, to give more stability and more comfort. The Coast lineup also includes a matching stem (review to come) for £60, meaning you can have a PNW combo for £130. Its range includes dropper posts like the Suspension Dropper that Stu really liked back in the summer, as well as stems, handlebars and grips.

PNW Components hails from Seattle, Washington surrounded by awesome trees and trails, it's the perfect place to hone gravelly products. It's affordable too, and has a lifetime warranty. The PNW Components Coast handlebar is an instant classic: wide, shallow and stable, it's perfectly suited for long days on rough roads and trails.

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