I have had the chance to run these bars from JOYSTICK for the last few months. They saw me enter my first race, get onto my first podium and saw me through some big airs and even bigger crashes. And well most importantly they look really cool, did you see the space invaders skull?!?
Of course I was in a rush to mount up deciding about 5 mins before a club ride that I was hosting but when you’ve got new gear you just have to. I loved how easy the Analog bars were to mount and set up. The bars rad graphics also made it really easy to set things up to be perfectly even to both sides. Line up the SKULL and you’re dead on. All the clamp spots, stem, levers and grips are all reinforced to give them a really solid feel and to protect from crushing them by nuffy’s like me.
I think the biggest thing and the original reason I wanted to give these bars a test were all the talk about how strong they are. I was thinking strong for CARBON or strong for handle bars. Joystick makes a big claim, stating the bar “challenges the misconceptions about the durability of carbon handlebars.” I mean sure they sponsor guys that ride in RedBull Rampage but what about a guy like me, when I crash it’s a good one and pretty much always I break something. After a whole summer of riding I have not even really put a scratch on my bars. They seem as strong as day one. The bars are really stiff letting me have perfect reaction from the wheels to the steering yet they really dampen out the normal trail vibrations. Riding race runs four days in a row during the Bike Buller festival were a massive test and my hands weren’t sore at all.
OVERALL, these JOYSTICK bars have been really impressive, great look on my bike and even better feel on the trail. I wasn’t worried heading into a steep line that my bars were going to let me down, my confidence is there for sure. I think the only thing that I have noticed was the stem’s grip on the steerer tube wasn’t the best, I had to straighten my bars after some of the bigger crashes.
Specs for My Bar and stem combo:
BAR:
Width: 800mm // Rise: 30mm // Bend: 9° // Upsweep: 6° // Weight:212g
STEM:
Length: 50mm // Rise: 0° // Stack Height: 40mm // Weight:135g
You can check out more details on the Joystick Analog bars and the rest of the Joystick range over at Mountain Bikes Direct: https://www.mountainbikesdirect.com.au/brand/joystick/
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Words: Steve Leeder
Photos: Ben Sykes