PRO Discover Aero Carbon Handlebar

This really is a good looking bar, I was super excited when it came it and thought it would work great. I'm a fan of a shallow drop for a gravel bar as well. The bar looks and feels premium.

Cable routing is excellent but that also leads to the first quirk, the grooves for cables run up into the stem clamping area. There are explicit warning marks (which are not shown in the pictures here) where you stem must clamp and they're fairly wide. I tried my stock OEM Cervelo stem and the clamping area was too narrow. Same with a Zipp, FSA and Ritchey stem I had laying around. Also, the cable routing grooves dictate how much you can rotate the bars in the stem. This wasn't a problem for me but if you wanted your bars pointed fairly upwards for some reason, the manual says don't do that.

Okay fine, I'll buy the matching Pro Discover stem. That...kinda meets the minimum clamping area criteria. It's pretty close and I wonder if Pro designed this to be used with their aero stem and no others.

Setting up the bar, I put the shifters up where the shifter clamp just touches the highest clamping mark on the bars. When I ride I have my forearms pretty flat and like the shifters to be a little more upright. Well at this position, the shifters are pretty close to flat. I really don't know what most of the rest of the marked clamping range would look like - shifters horizontal or pointing downwards?

On top of this, at the highest point where I have the shifters installed, there's a gap between the GRX shifter body and the wide part of the bar it's supposed to match up to. I guess it makes sense they couldn't really overlap and the hood covers it, but now the feel of the bar is a slight bump/rise as you get near the hoods, then a divot where you're on the round part of the bar and then the body of the shifter.

Personally this is a one star but I gave it three because maybe it's just me as the other two reviews seem very positive. But the setup ergonomics of this bar just seem strange. And the fact that you need a stem with a wide faceplate is a pain. I also can't find that stem clamping area requirement mentioned on Pro's website or in any of the "professional" reviews I read before purchasing it.

This is the most comfy drop bar I've used in 30 years of riding. Yes, it looks funky without tape, but with tape it's fine. The way it dips down between the stem and brifter is so cozy for your palm. Nice slight flare on the drops. I feel like the end of the drops angle up slightly in a way that annoys me, so I deducted a star for that, but this is probably my fav drop bar of all time, now. I also love that the hose routing underneath is entirely exposed, so it's easy to swap bars even with an integrated stem. I meant this to be a temporary bar until I go one piece, but now I'm just spoiled.

I don't have a lot of cycling experience with other bars, but I bought them specifically for the shallow drop and forward sweep. First carbon bar I've owned too. Loving them so far!