Welp, that didn’t take long. Just a couple days ago, Travis shared his first impressions of Forge+Bond’s prototype handlebar, but we didn’t know what it would cost. And we didn’t know when—or if—it would come to market. That may not seem like a normal way to announce a product, but this isn’t a normal product. 

Forge+Bond is probably doing a bunch of ongoing experiments with Fusion Fiber, their signature thermoplastic carbon material (see our first post about Forge+Bond for more details). The handlebars probably happened to be far enough along that they wanted to see what people thought. And maybe they saw a big uptick in traffic from the handful of reviews and handful of teasers that have been circulating. So, they picked a date and a price. The date is today, and the price is $265.

That’s hard to compare because, at the moment, the Forge+Bond handlebar is peerless. The closest thing to a North American-made boutique carbon MTB handlebar might be one of the options from ENVE, all of which go for $190. But Forge+Bond’s Fusion Fiber is an extremely tough, measurably compliant type of carbon that can be recycled, while traditional carbon can not. That applies to excess material left over during production, as well as the entire bar if you do manage to break it. And if that happens, it’s covered under Forge+Bond’s lifetime warranty, while ENVE’s stops at five years.

But aside from the nuts-and-bolts facts and figures around these new bars, we’re just excited to see the boundaries being pushed in carbon fiber. It’ll be interesting to see what other projects Forge+Bond is working on and whether or not they come to market.

See more at Forge+Bond