Originally Posted July 7, 2019. Updated Jan 11, 2021.
I’ve been on a building spree (seriously, I need to work on controlling myself around bicycles) and recently picked up a used Crust Evasion from @adom_sale on Instagram. Since it takes a full week for UPS to ship a bike box from coast to coast, I had several hours to consider what I wanted this bike to be.
Off the bat, I had read Dan Stroud’s review of the Evasion on bikecounterculture and was really intrigued by his use of flat bars. Based on general browsing around the internet, it does seem like the majority of Evasions are running some sort of sweepy flat bar like Jeff Jones’ 45° bar, and those that are running drops are using super-wide bars like the Crust towel rack.
Top posts on Instagram with #crustevasion. 5 flat bars, 4 drops.
I have always been curious about the towel rack bars (Update: I have owned a pair of these in 615cm width and found them to be….too wide), but when I try them I just feel like they’re too wide at the hoods to be comfortable for long rides. I’m not exactly the broadest of shoulder, but I’m not a skinny guy either (I ride a 42cm road drop). Even with all that, I was intrigued by the shape of the Dajia cycle works Far Bar that Velo Orange sells.
On first glance, the Far Bar seems like the ideal dirt drop bar. The dimensions between the hoods on the 48cm version is relatively modest, yet the drops measure out to almost 68cm. The bars seem to be a great candidate for a traditional road lever setup with three hand positions (tops, hoods, drops), and ideal for touring since you can 1) fit a bag or basket between the bars, and 2) have an aggressive but comfortable low position to stay out of the wind and a higher than normal position on the flats for keeping the back happy on long days in the saddle.
Despite my best efforts, I wasn’t able to set these up with three comfortable positions. No matter where I position my brake levers, the hand position on the hoods is way too stretched out, somewhat akin to using aero bars, and braking feels compromised even with the TRP Hylex hydraulic brakes.
Even with this substantial critique, I’ve been using these bars for some light mountain biking here in Philly and urban riding and I have to say that they are truly wonderful. Sometimes I wish they were just a bit lower (the drop from hood to hook is a modest 70 cm), but they give me the leverage for whipping the bike around on the trail and the stability to really crank on the bars when starting in a high gear on my commute.
The extreme flair does mean that both sizes of Far Bar will fit a Wald 139 between the drops and the 48cm version can fit a large Fab’s Chest bag.
Despite this, I did eventually move to Salsa Cowchipper bars after an S24O caused my hands to go numb, and found them much more comfortable, especially in the drops.
Before: Dajia Far Bar, 26x2.8 WTB Ranger tires
After: Salsa Cowchipper, 27.5x2.2 Bontrager XR2 tires (awful)