Ritchey Buzzard Handlebar Review: Like Soaring on Thermals – Spencer Harding | The Radavist | A group of individuals who share a love of cycling and the outdoors.

Spencer Harding was surprised to find the answer to his bike touring handlebar needs from Ritchey of all companies with their Buzzard handlebar. Their touring/comfort-focused Buzzard handlebar has the numbers and bends to make his spine and hands happy and perfectly topped off his Crust Scapebot build. Check out his review below…

Quick Hits

Material: double-butted 6061 alloy
Width: 820 mm
185 mm grip area
Rise: 70 mm flat rise
Backsweep: 27.5°
Clamp diameter: 31.8 mm
Bar-end compatible
Weight: 367g
Color: Black
$49.95

Finding My Way to the Buzzard

I wound up with a set of Ritchey Comp Buzzard handlebars as the solution to the strange fit of my Crust Bikes Scapebot. The Scapebot has a very short reach and I have a long torso. On the initial build, with a setback seatpost and flat bars clamped onto a 90 mm stem, I was able to get a somewhat reasonable fit. I still felt too far behind the pedals, even for a chill touring bike. Enter the Buzzard handlebar…

Soaring on the Wings of a Vulture

When I realized that the Buzzard handlebars were 820 mm wide (swoon!) and swept forward slightly, I was enamored. That forward sweep would preserve some of the reach I couldn’t afford to lose on my Scapebot. In addition, the bars have a 70 mm rise, which would be crucial in not having a ton of spacers under my stem. The Scapebot has a high bottom bracket and a comparable low stack height, so the bars need to be higher than one would expect with such a massive headtube. I’m not ashamed of a ton of spacers, but aesthetically speaking I like a lower stem with high bars.

Initially I set up the Buzzard with an 80 mm stem, imagining the bars wouldn’t extend my reach that much. I quickly realized I would need a stem shorter than 80 mm and a zero setback seat post. I emailed Ritchey and they kindly sent me a seatpost and a pair of stems, a 70 mm and a 60mm, just in case. Turns out Fergus at Ritchey was right (tips hat) and the 60 mm stem was the winner. I was wary of going with too small of a stem since that would complicate mounting stem bags, but 60 mm will do just fine.

In transitioning to the bars I swapped from a Thomson setback seatpost (-16 mm) and a 90 mm stem to a zero setback post and 60 mm stem. With that my weight has been shifted toward the center of the bike, my knees are more centered over the pedals, and my wrists are much happier with the bar sweep. The wide bars and generous sweep have figuratively opened up the cockpit on my Scapebot. My body position feels more balanced and less like I’m struggling to make the bike fit.

Plenty of Room

The Buzzard handlebar has a roomy ~200 mm area to mount your bikepacking bags before the tubes go through all their bends. If you need to strap your stem bags and handlebar bag separately, this may be tight. Pro tip: try using the straps for double duty and your setup will be cleaner, lighter, and more simple. The bar also stays at the 31.8 mm diameter through the flat section, offering more room for computer and light mounts. Having enough space to mount bags and other electronic accoutrements is crucial in this day and age and something I’ve found lacking on other sets of riser bars. Another box ticked for the Buzzard.

Getting Lined Up

With so many angles between forward sweep, back sweep, and rise, you should probably be a bit fiddly with your setup at first. I added Ergon paddle grips, which adds a fourth dimension to all this chaos as well. After a few rides, I was able to tinker enough to find a comfortable balance between angling the bars back to reduce wrist stress and finding the right “roll” for my paddle grips. Turns out the bar was designed to be a bit angled back, so if you are struggling, try that first.

Ticking All the Boxes

The Buzzard handlebars ticked all the boxes for me on an admittedly strange bike with a weird fit. I found the Buzzard bars to be a pleasant surprise in the typically performance-oriented Ritchey parts lineup. It is a worthy successor to the Kyote handlebar but with more rise and slightly wider. In this day and age, 820 mm is my personal minimum for any non-drop handlebar. The sweep is generous at 27.5 degrees, which takes this bar out of the running for more aggressive applications, so chill out and enjoy your lack of lower back pain.

The Kyote and Buzzard both serve to convert shorter-reach drop bar bikes to upright swept bar bikes and I’m here for it. My Scapebot was not a drop bar bike, but the reach numbers are damn close. I really wanted to highlight the Buzzard bars because it seems like an odd duck in Ritchey’s catalog, but nonetheless a handlebar with plenty of possibilities.

The Buzzard handlebar has complimented my Scapebot build splendidly and tied the bike together in a way I wasn’t able to find with another handlebar. I’ll be keeping it!