Two things have happened since we last tested the Race Face SixC – the price has gone up, which is sort of inevitable with the cost-of-living crisis, and the bar is now a whopping 820mm wide. It’s always been a hit for us, with impressive test scores but does it still take a place as one of the best mountain bike handlebars?

Some MBR testers love a wide bar, but others are going to want to cut 60mm off this one. Not that they can, because Race Face has put a minimum cut length of 770mm on this bar, which we imagine is due to the carbon lay-up.

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The SixC is only available in two rises, but importer Silverfish is still offering the 31.8mm option with a 15mm rise and 780mm width for £10 less. With its short bulge, getting a stem round the angles is pretty easy, and when we installed the controls they also slid on smoothly, but that is because the bar is slightly undersized by 0.2mm. You are never going to scratch the surface, but the collars and clamps may need another quarter turn to stop them slipping.

Race Face SixC handlebar pairs well with the brand’s top-scoring Turbine R stem

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The SixC is really comfortable when you’re smashing over rocks or a maze of roots, but the problem we had is getting it through gaps – on some of our test trails there just isn’t room between the trees – you’re going to have to do either a manual/bar turn or shuffle through.

Cutting it down is likely what most will do, but we’ve been running it full width because it is so comfortable. There’s still plenty of precision, but the vertical compliance is almost as good as the One Up Aluminium bar.