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FEATURE<br />
THE 3 STAGES/<br />
REASONS TO BUY A<br />
NEW HANDLEBAR:<br />
EXPLAINED!<br />
I am a first time off-road bike buyer.<br />
Why should I consider spending more<br />
money for a new handlebar?<br />
Good question. If you are not too technical<br />
then you won’t be thinking about a<br />
handlebar and will just be riding your<br />
motorcycle and getting used to it. The<br />
first time you might be looking for a bar<br />
would be after a crash when it’s become<br />
bent or damaged. You’ll go into a dealer<br />
and typically it will be ProTaper or Renthal<br />
that is available. From that point it is<br />
really dependent on our reps, salesmen<br />
and distributors out there to be educating<br />
the Parts guys or manager at these<br />
dealerships on what our product does<br />
and the benefits it can bring you. That’s<br />
very hard. A new customer might not be<br />
someone who is into the technical details<br />
or racing or seeing it on an athlete’s<br />
bike so it is about that impression at the<br />
dealer and then driven by price for their<br />
particular bike. They might need a new<br />
bar for their KTM that costs 150 dollars<br />
but walking over to the aftermarket section<br />
means a product at 80 bucks that is<br />
better. So I think it is a crash and then a<br />
conversation like that which brings the<br />
first time customer to us.<br />
OK, so I’ve had my bike for six months<br />
and I love it. I want to bling-it-out. I have<br />
a different pipe and now I’m looking for<br />
something else. What differences will a<br />
new ‘bar make?<br />
I think that rider might see the ProTaper<br />
name popping up with a few athletes or<br />
teams they could be following and they<br />
might be something to it. They might<br />
dive into our website to see what the<br />
product is about and will see a ProTaper<br />
bar compared to a stock one is made of<br />
completely different materials. We are<br />
not holding anything back when it comes<br />
to cost because it is about bread-andbutter<br />
and we produce them in such<br />
quantities that we can offer the best possible<br />
product you can make for a competitive<br />
price. Flex characteristics are a<br />
huge thing, so if a rider is experiencing<br />
a very rigid handlebar – maybe it has a<br />
crossbar, maybe it doesn’t – no brand is<br />
the same. When it comes to a bar without<br />
a crossbar ProTaper was the inventor<br />
and patent holder of that design back in<br />
1991. We’ve been in it longer than anybody<br />
else. That patent expired in 2011 so<br />
now you see everybody in the game has<br />
a fat bar. We have a twenty year headstart<br />
on everyone and have done all sorts<br />
of testing in our lab and with our riders<br />
for flex and fatigue strength. A customer<br />
like the one you mentioned would be<br />
looking for some performance benefits<br />
as well as looking at some of the options<br />
we can provide, so to bling the bike we<br />
have all the colours of bars and pads for<br />
customisation.
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