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Deda Gravel100 RHM Bar

8
£94.99

VERDICT:

8
10
Buzz-taming alloy bar that delivers with a great shape, good looks and well-thought-out design details
Weight: 
257g

At road.cc every product is thoroughly tested for as long as it takes to get a proper insight into how well it works. Our reviewers are experienced cyclists that we trust to be objective. While we strive to ensure that opinions expressed are backed up by facts, reviews are by their nature an informed opinion, not a definitive verdict. We don't intentionally try to break anything (except locks) but we do try to look for weak points in any design. The overall score is not just an average of the other scores: it reflects both a product's function and value – with value determined by how a product compares with items of similar spec, quality, and price.

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Deda has taken one of its top end alloy road bars and given it a bit of a tweak to suit the challenges of gravel riding and racing. The Gravel100 RHM offers an excellent firm yet comfortable ride, with a nice flare from top to bottom giving extra control and the large centre section providing plenty of room to attach your gadgets.

  • Pros: Firm yet comfortable; loads of space for accessories
  • Cons: There are cheaper alternatives

The Zero 100 road handlebar by Deda is highly respected and we see it on a fair view mid to high-end bikes, so it was a good place to start for a top-end gravel bar.

> Find your nearest dealer here

The Gravel100 has a 31.7mm clamping area, and it's good to see that that diameter extends a good distance either side of where the stem will sit. If you need to attach your GPS, lights and other accessories for a long jaunt or adventure, like aero extensions, you'll have plenty of room to mount them all. It also means you can run your bar tape right up to it for a smooth transition, and the deep channels under the bar mean your cables continue those clean lines.

Deda Gravel100 RHM BoB Bars - detail 1.jpg

The upper part of the bar has a slightly flattened aero shape, which works really well on the gravel where you can often find yourself tapping out the miles sat on the tops. The slightly wider shape than a standard round bar gives you a bit more surface area, allowing a more relaxed grip from my experience, so you can let the bike float about a little more beneath you when on the rough stuff.

A lot of gravel bars have flared drops to aid control when in a crouched position. Narrower handlebars speed up the steering and when riding fast on a loose surface you don't want any twitchiness, so when you are hunkered down in the drops the bar is wider, taming the handling a little.

Up at the hoods the widths are your standard road size options, 40cm to 46cm outside to outside, but the 12-degree flare each side kicks the bottom width by an extra 60mm for each size.

Deda Gravel100 RHM BoB Bars -  detail 2.jpg

From a performance handlebar you want stiffness, but you don't want it to be too firm and uncomfortable, especially off-road. Deda has got a pretty good balance here by using triple-butted 7075 aluminium alloy. Butting, if you don't know, is when a tube has varying wall thicknesses along its length, three in this case. More material in the centre section, plus the larger diameter, means plenty of stiffness for sprinting or pulling on the bar when climbing, but the thinner sections as it moves away from the stem promote just a small amount of flex, taking the really fine road buzz out. It is very minimal but it is there.

Using Deda's RHM (Rapid Hand Movement) design, the Gravel100 bar has quite a shallow drop of just 130mm, which makes getting your hands from the tops to the drops and back again very quick and easy.

Deda Gravel100 RHM BoB Bars - drop.jpg

Overall, it is a very good quality handlebar with some very good design ideas, but you are expected to pay for it. Priced at £94.99, it is more than double the price of the very good PRO Discover Medium bar, which costs just £44.99. It has the same 12-degree flare and weighs just 8g more, though I have to say it doesn't quite have the same level of finish as the Deda.

A bar that does have that quality is the Easton EA70 AX. It has a slightly wider flare and offers a very similar ride quality, and has an RRP of £79.99.

> 9 ways to make your bike more comfortable

Both the Deda and Easton are a lot cheaper than something like the Enve G Series Gravel bar, though, at £340, a carbon bar that weighs just 11g less.

Overall, there are cheaper options out there but the Deda Gravel100 delivers a very good ride quality, a great shape and good looks.

Verdict

Buzz-taming alloy bar that delivers with a great shape, good looks and well-thought-out design details

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road.cc test report

Make and model: Deda Gravel100 RHM Bar

Size tested: 42cm

Tell us what the product is for and who it's aimed at. What do the manufacturers say about it? How does that compare to your own feelings about it?

Deda says, "With the Gravel100 RHM Handlebars, Deda have used their experience and expertise learnt from the Zero100 RHM handlebars which are just about the most reliable and classic handlebars out on the market today. Made to the same tried and tested RHM shape as their top end Alanera bar, it ensures comfort, and speed of movement, whether you're on the drops or on the flats.

"To make the handlebars more suitable for gravel and cyclocross racing, the Gravel100 handlebars feature a 12 degree flare at the drops to provide more stability while still preserving the typical drop bar feel.

"These bars feature a drilled entry hole for installation of Di2 bar-end junction box."

I think it is one of the better gravel bars out there.

Tell us some more about the technical aspects of the product?

From Deda:

Shape

RHM – Rapid Hand Movement

Material

Triple butted alloy 7075

Handlebar diameter

31.7 mm

Reach

75 mm

Drop

130 mm

handlebar sizes (outside to outside) cm

40 cm, 42 cm, 44 cm, 46 cm

Finish

black on black (BOB)

Rate the product for quality of construction:
 
8/10
Rate the product for performance:
 
9/10
Rate the product for durability:
 
8/10
Rate the product for weight (if applicable)
 
8/10
Rate the product for comfort (if applicable)
 
8/10
Rate the product for value:
 
4/10

It's at the pricier end of the market for an alloy gravel bar, though it isn't massively more expensive than the very good Easton EA70 AX.

Tell us how the product performed overall when used for its designed purpose

The way the material deals with the vibration from rough surfaces is very impressive.

Tell us what you particularly liked about the product

Great shape.

Tell us what you particularly disliked about the product

Slightly pricier than some very good opposition.

Did you enjoy using the product? Yes

Would you consider buying the product? Yes

Would you recommend the product to a friend? Yes

Use this box to explain your overall score

A very good handlebar, offering an excellent ride quality and loads of space for fitting accessories. There are some cheaper alternatives, though.

Overall rating: 8/10

About the tester

Age: 40  Height: 180cm  Weight: 76kg

I usually ride: This month's test bike  My best bike is: B'Twin Ultra CF draped in the latest bling test components

I've been riding for: Over 20 years  I ride: Every day  I would class myself as: Expert

I regularly do the following types of riding: time trialling, commuting, club rides, sportives, fixed/singlespeed

As part of the tech team here at F-At Digital, senior product reviewer Stu spends the majority of his time writing in-depth reviews for road.cc, off-road.cc and ebiketips using the knowledge gained from testing over 1,500 pieces of kit (plus 100's of bikes) since starting out as a freelancer back in 2009. After first throwing his leg over a race bike back in 2000, Stu's ridden more than 170,000 miles on road, time-trial, track, and gravel bikes, and while he's put his racing days behind him, he still likes to smash the pedals rather than take things easy. With a background in design and engineering, he has an obsession with how things are developed and manufactured, has a borderline fetish for handbuilt metal frames and finds a rim braked road bike very aesthetically pleasing!

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1 comments

Avatar
RobD | 4 years ago
0 likes

Deda seem to be a brand that has pretty big discounts available, I'm hoping that's the case here as it looks like a pretty ideal setup for the new bike

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