So anyone that’s bumped into me recently has got a little sneak peak at Easton’s new Havoc bar. You see the reason Easton did that road trip in New Zealand a while back was to shoot and film for the launch, which is today. What’s the big deal about an 800mm wide bar? Well the deal is the old Carbon Havoc features the strongest strength to weight ratio of all the carbon bars out there. Easton felt that if they went to 800 with a standard bar clamp diameter, it just wouldn’t be strong and stiff enough. So they decided to launch a new bar clamp size, hence the 35. At 35mm they could make a bar that’s stronger, stiffer and, would you believe, lighter than the exsisting 31.8 Havocs. And in case you don’t ride moto, Easton introduced 35mm bars three years ago to that market so have a bunch of knowledge to bring to the MTB 35mm table.
I’ve been riding the alloy Havoc 35s over the past few months, and I never would have believed I’d be able to tell the difference between the stiffness of the two bar clamp sizes. But honestly, on the first run it was obvious the new Havoc is stiffer for sure, and in my case it’s very much a good thing, especially with my big clown wheels. I don’t really want to go back to 31.8, so I got a second bar so both bikes are set up with Havoc 35s.
Obviously with a new bar size a new stem is going to be in order too. Easton have redesigned both their single crown and triple crown stems, with the triple now being a two-piece clamp that gives a wider contact area increasing bar stiffness even further.
Availability in New Zealand should be sometime late May, but we’ll confirm that soon. Hopefully the Havoc 35 website is up right now, where there’s videos and even more info to be watched and read.
