Spank Vibrocore Handlebars - Vibration Reducing handlebars
Carbon Feel, Aluminium Toughness and Price
A special foam filled aluminium bar that has a really good trail feel. It's like an expensive carbon bar for less money and more durability.
Spank uses a special foam that produces a reduction in high frequency vibrations so your bike feels smoother and more composed. The Vibrocore bars have been proven on the world cup circuit and are an ideal choice if you are worried about crashing or damaging expensive carbon bars. They have also been tested by magazines with devices to detect vibrations at the centre and end of the handlebars. The Spank performed better than the carbon bar.
As we ride, vibrations are transmitted through the bike into our hands and arms. The range of vibrational frequencies experienced in mountain bike riding is between 2Hz to 200Hz, although the most common vibrational frequencies experienced in mountain bike riding occur between 5Hz to 50Hz.
Sustained vibrations between 8Hz to 50Hz are proven to be medically harmful and result in what we know as hand-arm numbness and fatigue, (HAVS), and in extreme cases, arm-pump or CECS.
This medically harmful range of 8Hz to 50Hz coincides almost exactly with the most common frequency occuring in mountain bike riding.
All handlebars act to dampen some of these harmful vibrations. Yet all handlebars also have a unique frequency at which they resonate - thereby increasing the harmful vibrations.
Resonance typically occurs between 12Hz to 25Hz. This creates “The Perfect Storm” and the highest risk towards causing hard arm numbness and fatigue and arm-pump.
SPANK aimed to move the handlebar’s natural resonant frequency into higher ranges, rather than battle amplitude. The reason for this is twofold. Higher frequencies are less common in cycling and are less harmful to the human body.
Vibrocore™ is how we achieved this, effectively “taking the Buzz out of the Bar”.
Testing shows that the Spank handlebar reduces vibration lower than expensive carbon handlebars