Handlebars, hey you had to admit, you needed to have the right bars on your bike or it didn't feel right. some bars you loved and some you hated,
What were you Favorite set to have on your ride,,

For Me it was and Still is the Powerlite powerbend pro bars, I had a set of A'me tri grips on mine with some jumbo donuts, I loved em,

Lets here it was it Star Bars, CW's, GT, Robinson, Hutch, what,

I would say the first GT pro bars about mid 80's. I think they were wider and more flat. Totaly changed how I thought bars should be. Before that I liked Pro V bars, till I tried the GT's.

Changstar

PowerLites were it once I got used to them, GT's were great too. My absolute favorite were a pair of early Kastan bars, non stamped, that had more of a PowerLite curve than a downward curve like the later Kastanbars. Unfortunately, they were stolen with my Redline.

Kuwahara Laser Bars. Best bars we could get in our corner of the world back in the day. The only thing, IMHO that could best them now are S&M Slams

JMC DY - still race with them every weekend .

gotta be Early GT Pro Bars for me

GT handlebars chnageds everything when they were introduced. Think how many of us still had redline v-bars, aluminum handle bars ( race inc) etc. When I first saw them I was blown away. One set of bars I hated were my Galindo bars. That plastic cross bar didnt do jack. Those things were so flexible that they were down right scary.

I used early GT Pros, JMC DY bars and Redline Proline V bars. All were good but the GT's won the day. I still have those GT bars on my Supergoose and the V-Bars on my Redline. Just wish I had the DY's too.

DY bars were the schizznit bitd. had those on my DY toward the end. had a set of Galindo's on my Mongoose's. my friend's dad made me a cross bar out
of aluminum to keep the flex down. I thought they were cool bitd.

Skyway Ta race bars suited me well along with powerlite pro bars

CW

Profile were best ones followed by GT for me.

I always liked the Powerlites with the bend on the ends

Redline micro V

For me it was the Race Inc Bars

HUTCH PRO AND CRUISER ALSO FIRST GEN TNT BARS, FELT LIKE HUTCH BUT THEY WERE A LITTLE MORE STOUT.

CW then Powerbends.

Mongoose Pro Class for awhile then GT Pro bars after that

I also had powerlite powerbends, with A'me grips, and donuts, lmao....and they were my favorite.
I had less shock on the wrists/forearms and elbows with those bars than any other bars I used. And, I loved the comfort level while cornering.

I always liked Powerbends (still use them 90 percent of the time).

Funny thing though, as a kid I never cared for CW's (for asthetic reasons alone, I never ran them), but now love them on the right build.

Redline Forklifters for years, GHP Star Bars, but for me it's been all Slams all the time since 88.

Early Hutch Pro...they were a bit wider than most (2 inches or so). I sold mine to a friend and tried a bunch of other brands and finally bought them back for 3 times what I sold them for....used them for the rest of my career.

For me it was CW!!

Redline V Bars. Funny thing is when I started riding again the back sweep seemed bizarre. I swapped them out for some slams. Those are great!

jk

For me it was the Redline V Bars because they were wide. You had to cut them to your specs.

Hutch pro bars. They had that NO sweep back feel vs GT's and the others (IMO). Now compared to todays bars they feel like snowblower bars, but back then they were the bomb.

IMO, when the "wide" handle bar craze evolved (80-81) it was the turning point of bmx. Back then it made OS bars non competitive and was just a big evolution in bmx handling. You saw the beginning of lightning fast gates, better handling, cornering, etc because we could finally get that leverage. I can't think of a better product/idea brought to bmx than handle bars (28" plus )

Early Hutch Pro for racing and Redline Forklifter U bend for freestyle.

GT Pro
Pistol Pete

Redline Forklifter for sure.

CycleCraft Fred'z are my all time favorite racing handlebars.

Had some CW handlebars that were so tall I could stick my head through them.

Pete had his own bars?

CW and Powerlites for me

Lucky you there getting ready to start making Fred'z bars again . I wish JMC would come back .

70's had Redline Microline V bars, never bent and great for pre 14 year olds
1980/81 Race Inc. chromoly bars, height, sweep, stength were awesome
80's Redline Pro V-bars/Stu bars - 16 and over perfect for the average size racer

I would ahve to say powerlite with the bend and then the dk 4 pc. bars.

Aren't Slam bars just a beefed up old GT bar?

Changstar

Not your Big Head Todd, No way!!!!!

LOL, I had some CW pros with that huge rise, Loved em till I got some Powerlite powerbend's, then I realized the Cw's Stunk, Had Hutch Bars before the Cw's liked those, and the Fred'z bars were great but I was getting out of BMX when that craze came along,

For the 20inch bike: JMC DY's. I ran them on my Kuwahara, and they were perfect. Flat and wide. Until I broke them

For the 24inch bike: GT Santa Ana cruiser bars. Wide, low and flat. Great power position, with or without an inverted stem.

I tried Powerlite Powerbend Pro bars on my Kuwahara (after I broke the DY's) but hated them. I went to CW Pro's which I rate right behind the DY's.

Powerlite
Galindos

I always hated the CW bars. We called em Crusher Bars around here. Not sure why tho.

DB Pro bars - 26"ish as standard. Always preferred that sort of width - just never really liked 28".

another vote for CW's.

I have to say I liked my Hutch pro bars followed by GT Pro as a close second.

Rgds,

Walter "Tiger" Holda

Joey, It was a tight fit but my XL melon went through the CW bars without the stem on 'em.

I think the best looking CW bars were the lower height models for cruisers and shorter riders. They didn't look like a cattle guard for a Kenworth.

I had some Hutch bars too. Nice and light but they cracked on me. Too many hillbilly flat ground landings BMX bike jumps!

GT bars were enjoyed until a misjudged slow speed lawn dart style nose dive landing off of a tight launch ramp made them have a forward sweep. Even the crossbar.

The reasons I liked the Fred'z were due to their thick tubing, stiffness and the look of them. Gary Mason, I'm looking forward to seeing the new versions.

Yes, When Pistol Pete was factory CW they created a lower rise version of the CW pro bar. They Pete bars were about 1.5 inches lower, very trick.

CW standard bars were and still are my favs, powerlites were also sweet. how come nobody on here rates Robinson pro bars, those were and still are one of thes sweetest bars to have on a bike.

BITD when I was a teenager I had Redline V bars that were dangerously small - they felt about 6 inches wide, swopped those for DB Pro's which were comfortable and looked pretty good - nice soft sweeps. Finally graduated to CW Pro's which I loved. Now I think they just look weird. Nice 'n' strong though.

What I liked but didn't ever have were early GT Pro bars, looked great, JMC DY, Race Inc. chromoly and SE Powerwings. Funny thing was I rarely saw SE Powerwings at the UK races.

In '98 I had Hoffman Jump bars and S&M Dive bars on different bikes. The Hoffmans felt perfect, the S&M's felt a bit too straight on the sweeps - reminded me of early 80's Torker Pro bars.

REDLINE FS AND REDLINE RACE..................................

Bob Haro Vector Bars.

I had SO much trouble with my bars slipping BITD, these were the perfect solution.

Hands down - Original GT Pro bars with broomsticks.

You will Im trying to get the CC guys to build bars first .