Alloy vs Carbon
Alloy vs Carbon
I make no bones about it that I’m huge Renthal fan for both moto and mountain bike. I have been using Renthal products for a majority of my moto career and as soon as I started Mountain Biking competitively Renthal launched their bicycle products. I’m really weird when it comes to using products between my Motorcycle and Bicycle, so I try my best to use the same brands for both disciplines to the best of my ability.
The 2017 Intense Tracer comes standard with Renthal 780mm wide with 30mm rise Allow Bars, Intense 40mm stem, and Intense dual lock on grips. The package was spot on for me and I had no complaints with geometry. The main thing that I wanted to try and accomplish with changing some products on this model is a little more comfort in my hands and to drop some weight off the bike if possible.
Like I said I had no complaints with the geometry of the Tracer, so when ordering products I went with the same specs. I went with the Renthal carbon 780mm wide bars, Renthal Apex 40mm stem, and ODI Elite Motion single side lock on grips. I was pleasantly surprised that my new package was 150 grams lighter. So how did it perform? I went to my local trails that offer a lot of different terrain and a place that I have a reference of a bout 200 miles already on this bike. Right away I noticed in the choppy terrain that the comfort level improved about 25% while descending. Sometimes going to carbon you will make the gain on weight, but the handling could be worse because the carbon is more rigid. Thankfully this was not the case changing to this package. The ODI grip was also an improvement in itself with the outer edge being elevated it helps with your hand not flying off. Overall I was very pleased with the new package and felt no negatives.
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