A Gentleman’s Friend – Paisley, Plaid or Herringbone?
Sometimes we’d all like to be just a bit different to everyone else. Sometimes we don’t. To cater for those occasions when you want to make a statement while keeping your mouth shut, Answer have released these limited edition ProTaper handlebars, dubbed the Gentleman’s Collection.
I’m really struggling to work out what it is they think we’d want to say about ourselves that would make us want to buy these, while at the same time thinking how cool they look. In particular I’m drawn to the plaid which is called Flannel in Answer-speak. I can’t quite imagine what these would look like actually fixed to a bike, or what colour scheme would work best; what grips would you use? Do you go for black forks or white? And so on.
One things for sure, it’s a real opportunity to get people talking about you! Perhaps it’s something for the Gentleman racers amongst us?
Based around their ProTaper Downhill handlebar, these are wide, 780mm bars that come in at around 335g in weight and are fashioned from 7050 series aluminium. That means they are by no means light, but not bad for such a wide bar either. The bars sport an 8° backsweep with an upsweep of 4° and are part of an initiative which Answer claim will see new designs launched every few months, while keeping availability tight. If you want one, you probably need to buy one soon.
The finish itself is apparently extremely durable, using a ‘military grade’ hard anodisation process, whatever that is. Enough to prevent it wearing away too easily I guess although bars don’t tend to get too many scratches anyhow.
About the author
Matt is one of the founding Molefathers of the Muddymoles, and is the designer and main administrator of the website.
Having ridden a 2007 Orange Five for many years then a 2016 YT Industries Jeffsy 29er, he now rocks a Bird Aether 9 and a Pace RC-627.
An early On-One Inbred still lurks in the back of the stable as a reminder of how things have moved on. You can even find him on road bikes - currently a 2019 Cannondale Topstone 105 SE, a much-used 2011 Specialized Secteur and very niche belt drive Trek District 1.
If you've ever wondered how we got into mountain biking and how the MuddyMoles started, well wonder no more.
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tony says:
I can almost imagine the Answer product planning meeting “So we’ve had a letter from the UK. Cool. This dude D’Andy has written telling us how big plaid is over in the UK. Awesome! Lets do some plaid pattern bars, everyone will love it. Awesome!”
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Posted on April 26, 2013 at 9:46 am
paul901 says:
Yes, possibly designed around rather than for Monsieur Le D’Andy but i wondered how many posts it would take to resist mentioning him. Tony you failed badly!
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Posted on April 26, 2013 at 10:20 am
tony says:
Make your own phrase Barrel/Fish/Shooting etc….:)
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Posted on April 26, 2013 at 11:46 am
Matt says:
I actually impressed myself with my restraint writing this post as all I could think of was ‘Dandy!’, ‘Dandy!’, ‘Dandy!’
These would go marvelously with his plaid shorts, don’t you think?
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Posted on April 26, 2013 at 11:50 am
Karl says:
Answers answer… What the hell was the question?
Unrelated..
Dandy is really that famous now…
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Posted on April 26, 2013 at 10:35 am
Dandy says:
The good news is that I managed to bend my understated black bars today as I ploughed nose first into the dirt. Other than pride, that was the only damage …. so I’m in the market for some new bars 😉
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Posted on April 28, 2013 at 8:16 pm
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