We’ve come to be big fans of what Redshift has done over the years. Their efforts to optimize comfort and innovate new components that make riding your bike more enjoyable and functional is exactly the kind of thing that get’s us excited to ride more. 

The Top Shelf Flat bars do exactly just that. As fans of the vintage moto style handlebars with a crossbar, these bars definitely stick out for looks alone. Functionally, they make it easy to want them on your bike. The backsweep is just enough and there are two rise options. What really seals the deal is the extremely usable crossbar section for mounting any of your tried-and-true accessories. 

• All-Day Comfort
• Precision Meets Ergonomics
• Load Up Your Accessories
• Adventure Ready
• Optimized Geometry

The Top Shelf Flat bars have a 31.8mm clamp diameter and a 22.2mm crossbar diameter. There are shims available for mounting accessories. 

These alloy bars will weigh in at 544-552g, depending on rise, and measure 800mm in length. 

Redshift will offer the bars in a 5mm or 70mm rise option. The Top Shelf bar will have 14° of backsweep and 5° of upsweep to help create a comfortable flow for hands and wrists. This helps riders to get into a more upright position while reducing strain on their hands, wrists, shoulders, and backs, especially on longer rides.

The 22.2mm crossbar enables riders to load up on the accessories with plenty of mounting space. Effectively give you the freedom to mount lights, computer, horn and more without conflicting with a handlebar bag. Naturally, theses bars will work seamlessly with Redshift’s Top Shelf Handlebar Bag.

What bikes make the most sense for these bars? Hardtail mountain bikes, bikepacking rigs, commuters, and even endurance riders. Really any setup that would benefit from a bit more of an upright posture and anyone looking to have more handlebar spaces for mounting their goods.

Fortunately, we’ve had the chance to get a few miles underneath us on the new Top Shelf Flat bars and have really found them to be quite nice. On test we’ve been using the 50mm rise bar on a hardtail mountain bike while we wait for the trails to dry out a bit more and swap them over to an electric gravel bike and setup a real multi-day weapon for late spring and summer rides. 

I cut my bars down a little bit, in part to narrow them for riding tighter trails and also to not have such a wide hand placement for extended straight section on fireroads. This helped to not worry about clipping a bar and relieve a little bit of that unwanted pressure on my palms. 

The 50mm rise has been spot on for my setup and I could see a 70mm rise being awesome on a commuter setup for an even more upright stance. 

When it came to mounting lights and the Coros on the bars I probably spent more time moving things around than was necssary. There was so much real estate to play with and it was almost fun getting to get creative and move things around before settling on the right position for everything. While these bars may not be necessarily a new invention, in fact I have similar bars on an old 90’s Raleigh hanging in the garage. What Redshift has done by using a full 22.2 top bar (crossbar) is the detail that has brought my critque as a rider using those similar bars in the past. Even standard bars with a rise have their nuances when it comes to mounting accessories. 

All in all, we’re looking forward to getting more miles on the bars as we have with anything we’ve brought on from Redshift. If you’re looking to change the look of your bike or make some progress towards a more comfortable riding position that doubles your mounting real estate at the same time, we’d definitely point you in the direction of Redshift.