Tumbleweed Bicycle Co. Big Dipper Handle Bar: Intro & First Impressions

 Note: Tumbleweed Bicycle Co. sent a Big Dipper handle bar to Guitar Ted Productions at no charge for review. I was not paid, nor bribed for this review, and I always strive to give my honest thoughts and opinions throughout. 

Okay, it's time to talk about this new Tumbleweed Big Dipper handlebar I have in for review now. This bar came out a week ago and has quietly been being sent out on complete Stargazer builds for a while already. You may also have seen reviews of pre-release Big Dipper Bars elsewhere, This is going to be my typical three-part review. This post is Part 1. 

I like the graphics/logo. Too bad a lot of it is under a stem face plate!

There are a couple of things I need to cover first here and one of them is my long-used terminology for the parts and features of a drop handle bar. That is covered at this link. 

Intentions: Reading that will help you understand what I am talking about here. Then there are the intentions for this bar in use. 

Tumbleweed makes bikepacking/adventure bikes. They wanted a drop bar of their own for their Stargazer drop bar bicycle.So, the Big Dipper was designed to enhance the Stargazer. That means we need to know what the Stargazer is about. From the Stargazer page on Tumbleweed's site we can read the following:

"The Stargazer is a nimble and balanced drop bar mountain touring bike designed for loaded trail riding. It's at home on trails, singletrack and gravel roads whether unladen or with racks and bags on an adventure. "

I'd say that says "Adventure Bike", and I think that means we need to check out this handle bar within that sort of use scenario first and foremost. Yes - you could use this on a road bike, a gravel bike, or whatever, but that is not the main focus of this handlebar's use.

So, a bicycle something like this then. (Note - The bars are Ragely Luxy Bars here)

The Big Dipper was therefore mounted to my Singular Gryphon Mk3 bike. The handle bar that was on there, the venerable Ragely Luxy Bar, is a very odd drop bar in that the extensions have a severe swept out stance. Ironically, the extensions of the Luxy Bar are actually wider than the Big Dipper Bar is overall, but where the levers mount? There is a tremendous difference there. More on that later and how that affects ergonomics and handling. 

Specs: From the Big Dipper Page;

Material: Triple butted, heat treated 7000 series aluminum alloy, ISO 4210 tested for mountain bike use

Widths: 51cm, 54cm, 57cm C-C at the hoods

Clamp Diameter: 31.8mm

Backsweep: 5 degrees

Flare: 20 degrees

Drop: 109mm

Reach: 50mm (overall reach from center of clamping area to center of tube at front of forward sweep)

Average weight: 385 grams

Price: $115.00

 

The drop on this handlebar is a progressive radius.

Impressions: The Big Dipper Bar is a handsome bar with unique graphics that I happened to like. (Too bad that half of this resides under a stem face plate now!) The anodizing is rich and even. I received the 54cm bar and yes - it looks wide at first! 

 

The drops have a constantly varying radius which is something I like. The reach is obviously quite short, and Tumbleweed put that into the design to help with the wider widths they offer. You may still need to look at a shorter stem, however, if you should decide on a Big Dipper Bar for your bicycle. Doing the shorty-stem helps keep the ergonomics reasonable. Again, more on that in a bit.

The bar I received was actually a touch lighter than claimed at 370 grams, which is fine. I don't think you buy a wide flared drop bar for its light weight, but it is nice to see that this handle bar is not a tank-ish bar in terms of weight. 

 

Installation: The cables and housings from my original installation on my Gryphon were mostly long enough to transfer over the bar without a lot of extra futzing around. My rear brake cable is a wee bit strained, but I got away with it. That said, after a ride or two I decided to check into a 2cm shorter stem which will alleviate that cable issue. Be aware that a wider bar might cause an issue with cable lengths. In other words, this may cause more trouble than you were thinking of in the installation process. You also won't find indentations to run cables along or internal routing here. This is a decidedly old school design in that way.

I also missed having those hash marks on the drop section which help to align the levers at the same height on the bar, side to side. That said, I managed to use my old experiences with handle bars without those hash marks to get the job done. 

Ride Impressions: Okay, so here is where the rubber hits the road here with this bar. First up - Ergonomics. Did the bar cause an issue with my fit? The previous bar, the Luxy, has more reach than the Big Dipper, so I found that I wasn't as stretched out to the hoods, which was good. That Luxy Bar made the reach a bit much. If I ever end up going back to the Luxy, it will be with a shorter stem. I had an 80mm stem on to begin with, for reference. 

In this shot you can see how the Luxy Bar sweeps out the extensions while leaving the hoods at a narrower stance

Here you can see how the Big Dipper is a quite different handlebar than the Luxy.

 

The other thing I was noting was that despite the wider stance of the hoods, my arms were not "splayed out" like a newborn deer's legs. I had a fairly straight shot to the levers. I was a bit surprised. But at first, with the 80mm stem, I did note that my elbows were nearly locked out, which is not good. The 60mm stem will help with this. 

 

The next thing I noted is that since your weight on the bars is further from the stem, it creates a longer lever arm and the Big Dipper does flex a bit over bumps, and depressions at speed. This doesn't do much in terms of vibrations over gravel, but it does take the edge off those hits that otherwise might be zingers with stiffer bars.  

 

From the side the Big Dipper looks "right" despite the short extensions.

Hand Positions: With 540mm of width, you'd think you'd get a nice hand position on the tops, and you'd be right. In fact, I liked the leverage and control over the front that this allowed me to have. Thinking about a typical 46cm bar, the space between the levers and the stem is not all that wide. You really don't have a lot of leverage over the front wheel with a bar like that, and the Luxy, with its more average tops length, is compromised in the same way. In rougher terrain or on deep, loose gravel, riding a handle bar that has a narrow tops section is not my preference. I much rather would have this situation that the Big Dipper affords me with its wider tops section. 

 

The drop is not very deep on the Big Dipper, which is no surprise. But there is almost nothing for extensions. You have essentially one grip in the drops, and that's it. I would consider my hands as being average to somewhat small for a guy my size, so this was a surprise. It reminded me of the old On One Midge Bar in that regard, for anyone who is familiar with that classic. 

The Big Dipper does allow you to get a great hoods position with the ability to still reach the brake lever from the drops, if you set the levers up that way. I think Tumbleweed got that part spot on. 

 

The extra real estate between the stem and the levers is great for stability in rough, loose terrain.

 

So Far... Okay, that's what I have for you now. I need to load up the Singular and hit some trails here and maybe some gravel travel on the side. I want to put in a longer ride as well to see if the width starts to become an issue or not on a multi-hour ride. Then I'll be back with another update, weather permitting. 

Right now I would say that the Big Dipper is a well designed bar with no special frills, but it is finished well and looks handsome. It has some nice give to it, and it falls to hand nicely with no weird grip positions or oddities to lever set up. I would have liked to have had a bit longer extensions. The width? I was surprised, but it feels okay to me so far.