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Home | Product Reviews | Handlebar | Azonic P.D.W. Chubby | ||||
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Submitted by
Eder Savio
a Downhiller
from Florianópolis - Brazil
Date Reviewed: 5/10/2007 5:37:14 PM |
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| FavoriteTrail: | Ratones |
| Duration Product Used: | Less than 1 month |
| Price Paid: | $35 |
| Purchased At: | ebay |
| Strengths: | Color resistant to scratches. |
| Weaknesses: | No enough space for to assemble the brake levers for one finger use. Heavy. It is hard to find 28.6 stem. |
| Similar Products Tried: | Tioga DH, Haro, Specialized, Roox tork bar. |
| Bike Setup: | Stinky, DHX 5.0, Monster T, Hope C2, XTR, CrMo Cranks, Maxxis Minion 2.5, Truvativ chain guide. |
| Bottom Line: | There are several affordable handlebars more light and stiff than Chubby. I like Tioga DH 2000. I don't use my new U$ 130 Chubby because there is not enough space for to assemble the brake levers for one finger use... |
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Submitted by
Trevor Thornton
a Downhiller
from Boise, ID
Date Reviewed: 8/17/2006 8:28:06 PM |
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| FavoriteTrail: | Pomerelle DH course |
| Duration Product Used: | 1 Year |
| Price Paid: | $35 |
| Purchased At: | A buddy |
| Strengths: | They have an awesome bend, and felt really stable. They look pretty sweet. The wide bars put you into a very stable riding position. You can get them cheap in a ton of places. |
| Weaknesses: | They broke on me. I only weigh 140 olbs, and I had not crashed majorly since getting them, so the integrity had not beenseverly comprimised. I was riding a rock garden, and next thing I knew, I was tumbling down the hill. I am honestly surprised they have not been recalled yet, as this is not the first time this has happened by any means. Whenever you have doublewall tubing, it's going to have a ton of stress at the junction. Bad design. I damaged my BRAND NEW 66RC2X, and got severely hurt because of the ensuing crash. I only had the bars for about 8 months, and I rode pretty infrequently, so they should not have failed, esecially in this manner. So basically, do not buy these bars. They fail catastrophically as opposed to bending, and THAT IS BAD. Also, the small grip area made it so that I had a hard time using lock on grips, and also I could not cut them down AT ALL. |
| Similar Products Tried: | A ton of bars, except the other one's didn't break. |
| Bike Setup: | KHS FR1500 with Fox Vanilla RC shock, a Marzocchi 66RC2X w/170mm, all high-end downhill components... |
| Bottom Line: | Azonic PDW Chubby=Bad. I do want to add that Azonic was decent about the warranty, but I no longer trust these bars, so I will be selling the replacements... |
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Submitted by
Coop
a Weekend Warrior
from Wisconsin
Date Reviewed: 3/29/2006 3:46:41 PM |
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| FavoriteTrail: | Porucpine Rim |
| Duration Product Used: | 6 months |
| Purchased At: | gift from friend |
| Strengths: | Looks great. Seems indestrcutable. Took a few 10ft + drops. |
| Weaknesses: | CREAKS like Frankstien's labratory door. CREAK! CREAK! CREAK! Its drving me nuts. |
| Similar Products Tried: | Easton Monkey Bar, EC7o carbon, FSA riser, Kalloy OS riser, Kore |
| Bike Setup: | Litech Magnesium frame, Marzocchi Z1 130mm fork, Avid disc brakes, SRAM x.9 |
| Bottom Line: | CREAKY! I hate the creaking! I want a different bar! |
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Submitted by
Matt
a Downhiller
from Milford NH
Date Reviewed: 11/8/2005 2:46:49 PM |
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| FavoriteTrail: | the kind that have a downward sloping incline |
| Duration Product Used: | 2 Years |
| Price Paid: | $80 |
| Purchased At: | local shop |
| Strengths: | Strong, good bend, good dh width, looks good |
| Weaknesses: | had to remove one of the little rubber things to accomodate a shimano shifter |
| Bike Setup: | Tomac 204, all the goods |
| Bottom Line: | To the guy that said the bars were creaking, try greasing the the stem bolts and torque them properly. The creaking will happen in any bar if the bolts have no grease and are over/under tightened. I love the rise and bend of this bar. I have ridden it for two years and have done 15 foot drops without any trouble. I am only 135 pounds so I don't really beat on equipment too hard. |
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Submitted by
joe brown
from raleigh
Date Reviewed: 10/4/2004 6:40:24 PM |
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| FavoriteTrail: | street |
| Duration Product Used: | 1 Year |
| Price Paid: | $75 |
| Purchased At: | rei |
| Strengths: | none |
| Weaknesses: | everything, this bar claims strength ... it didnt even last over 1 year it broke on a drop off ....this bar offers a 10 year warranty but only lasted just over 10 months this bar needs to be taken off the market it could cause serious injury to the user |
| Bottom Line: | dont buy this bar if you want strength in your product it has serious integrity issues im not saying that azonic is not good but if you are a rough rider and put a lot of stress on your bars please consider another product steel bars wont break like this i have permanant scars from this product 10 year warranty is misleading also the fact that it is a thicker diameter bar is misleading please head my warning these bars look great but perform badly |
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Submitted by
Alex Brown
a Weekend Warrior
from Grimsby, UK
Date Reviewed: 4/29/2003 10:12:43 AM |
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| Duration Product Used: | 1 Year |
| Price Paid: | $90 |
| Strengths: | Fat Very Stiff |
| Weaknesses: | Well, They snapped Heavy |
| Similar Products Tried: | Mission bars, Monty bars |
| Bike Setup: | Azonic Ds1 with marzocchi bombers and Azonic finishing kit |
| Bottom Line: | I am not impressed by these bars. They are desribed as "bombproof". Considering I use them for light urban use, and they snapped while rolling off a curb on my back wheel. Hopefully they will be covered under the 10 year warrenty. No one else seems to have many problems with this bar - so I can only assume that mine must have had a defect in them in the first place. I wouldn't buy them again, as for the size and weight mine didn't exactly turn out to be strong! You can see my snapped bars here: http://cloudburst.souliss.com/images/broken_bars.jpg |
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Submitted by
Joe
a Weekend Warrior
from Canada
Date Reviewed: 1/9/2003 2:39:35 PM |
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| FavoriteTrail: | urban, dj, drops |
| Duration Product Used: | Less than 1 month |
| Price Paid: | $15 |
| Purchased At: | ebay |
| Strengths: | Great bar...awesome to look at. great rise and sweep... so comfy to hold on to. Absolutley great. |
| Weaknesses: | I havent found 1 yet |
| Similar Products Tried: | Stock kona bar... stock gt bar |
| Bike Setup: | 2001 kona stuff. 24inch double tracks. 2002 7 inch junior t. truvativ hussefelt with blackspire guard and guide. Shimano deore disc brakes. front nokian gazzt 3 inch wide tire and 2.6 gazzy junior tire. azonic hammer chubby stem. azonic love seat.tioga dh pedals. |
| Bottom Line: | Great bar super stiff and awesoem to look at. Azonic make the worlds best components. perfect for urban dj and drops. |
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Submitted by
bOOnie
from Sydney, NSW, Australia
Date Reviewed: 11/22/2002 9:10:26 PM |
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| Duration Product Used: | 2 Years |
| Price Paid: | $119 |
| Purchased At: | The BikeSmith |
| Strengths: | Seem Very strong, but after reading the reviews I'm worried about brittle fracture with no warning on thier failure, hope this won't happen. Look way Fat. |
| Weaknesses: | NOT ENOUGH ROOM ON THE GRIP LEVEL!! Can't set your brake levers on the inside for 2 finger braking. Can't use lock grips. The roughened grip area doesn't work ended up wiring my grips on. |
| Similar Products Tried: | Crowbar (sh.t thats why I got these), the thinner walled azonics. |
| Bike Setup: | Gary Fisher Level Betty. Changed everything. I'm using the Azonic shorty with these bars, its a tough combo. |
| Bottom Line: | No Flex in the bars, Look tuff cause they are. No warning on failure it seems which is concerning (typical of aluminium) I have given mine a hard time for 2 years and they are holding up fine. |
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Submitted by
Alto
a Downhiller
from Wimborne
Date Reviewed: 10/27/2002 12:15:20 PM |
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| FavoriteTrail: | Astonhill |
| Duration Product Used: | 3 months |
| Price Paid: | $50 |
| Purchased At: | bikelab |
| Strengths: | tough as hell for a while |
| Weaknesses: | after about two months they started creaking a hell of a lot where the bar is joined to the big chubby bit |
| Similar Products Tried: | azonis double wall race face and custom made fat ass bars (solid metal) |
| Bike Setup: | azonic eliminater boxxer teams m4s d321 hope bulb mrp xt race face |
| Bottom Line: | these bars are good for a while but after some heavy drops they begin to creak a lot i duno if iv just got some duff ones though because the should be bombproof |
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Submitted by
al moi
a Racer
from ottawa
Date Reviewed: 7/19/2002 8:34:50 AM |
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| FavoriteTrail: | urbs/ xc |
| Duration Product Used: | 6 months |
| Price Paid: | $65 |
| Purchased At: | ebay |
| Strengths: | strong, flex free, takes abuse |
| Weaknesses: | stupid off red anodized color looks more burgundy pink than red, the finish is not well done so the bar looks like it is "ruffled", i usualy dont care about this type of stuff, but when it's actua;y anoying, it's a whole nother ball game. i like it wide but there isiint room to cut the bar if you wanted it skinnier, unless your rocking single speed. |
| Similar Products Tried: | titec hellbent (that i bent), and a whole lotta (8yrs worth)flat bar... |
| Bike Setup: | FSR Ground Control Comp, 99, fox vanila r, zokes z3 100mm, azonic pdf bar, magura hs-33 brakes, sun rino lite rims, bontrager hubs, intense 2.5 in front, irc el gato 2.25 in rear, wellgo platform pedals, ac cranks with black spire guard, race face XY post with titec beserkr dh saddle, XT compo... just the way you want it |
| Bottom Line: | iz ok, does what a bar should, busted up a hell bent just doing xc (xc out heres very rocky rooty dropy technical) and 4 footers (i ride everyday and i ride hard) so this bar hasent bent or given yet, will update when it does... |
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Submitted by
Garson
a Downhiller
from WESTMASS!
Date Reviewed: 6/10/2002 4:02:48 PM |
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| FavoriteTrail: | urban or big dirt jumps |
| Duration Product Used: | 6 months |
| Price Paid: | $50 |
| Purchased At: | Peak Performance (LBS) |
| Strengths: | Strong, stiff |
| Weaknesses: | too wide without room to cut |
| Similar Products Tried: | most azonic bars, titec hellbent DH |
| Bike Setup: | Planet X JFC, Psylo SL tulio, Arrow rims, Hayes, CK headset, tioga stem, etc. |
| Bottom Line: | They're fantastic bars. I wish I could cut 1/2" off each end to make for easier X-ups, but the extra width gives leverage on trails. If I break them, I'll get the normal PDW (without the sleeve) but until then, I'm stoked on the bars. Plus, Azonic has the sweep and rise just right, they're honestly the most comfortable bars you can buy. A damn good handlebar. |
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Submitted by
Linus Malm
a Downhiller
from Umea Sweden
Date Reviewed: 1/14/2002 10:35:19 AM |
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| Duration Product Used: | 3 months |
| Purchased At: | Bike |
| Strengths: | Strenght, nice sweep and strenght! |
| Weaknesses: | Could have more space to fit grips |
| Similar Products Tried: | 24/7 cromoly bars |
| Bike Setup: | Azonic ds1, chubby bars, shorty stem, grimeca system 12 (8"/6") brakes, Z1, mavic 521 cd with mobster front and gazza rear. |
| Bottom Line: | It isn't the cheapest bar around, but on the otherside I never have to worry about my bars being bent if I crash.. Ofcourse the fact that they have THE perfect shape, that just feels soo good, might give Azonic a reason to take sucht a high price for these bars. |
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Submitted by
Hormis Kalarickal
a Downhiller
from Raleigh NC
Date Reviewed: 1/4/2002 7:00:44 PM |
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| FavoriteTrail: | brown mountain |
| Duration Product Used: | 3 months |
| Price Paid: | $125 |
| Purchased At: | REI |
| Strengths: | great bar allows for easy ups easy manuals easy on the eyes |
| Weaknesses: | none |
| Similar Products Tried: | pdw not the chubby but the skinny which is also an awesome bar |
| Bike Setup: | ellsworth specialist z-2 hammer stem chubby bar wtb2.4tires triple trap platforms etc.... |
| Bottom Line: | this bar is awesome the only thing is that you need the stem to accomidate it and it is well worth it |
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Submitted by
Paul
a Downhiller
from Melbourne, Australia
Date Reviewed: 9/28/2001 6:22:17 AM |
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| FavoriteTrail: | Rob Roy |
| Duration Product Used: | 6 months |
| Price Paid: | $130 |
| Purchased At: | Goldcross Cycles |
| Strengths: | Strong to start off and has had some big gaps drops and jumps tolerated. never bent just snapped! |
| Weaknesses: | OK now to the point, i bought this bar expecting it would last me at least over a year i bought it knowing it was a double wall D/H, D/S bar that could take wat ever u throw at it. the other day i was just cruisin on the road and decided to just give a quick manual but oh no the bar had to snap as soon as i lifted the bars. load of crap! it was a clean snap to! ok so i took it back to goldcross to see wat was the situation was wit the warrenty. nah sorry m8 cant give u warrenty on that cause u use it for thrashing's and d/s well if u cant do that with it then WTF are u sposed to do with it. so then i had to put up with buyin the same bar for a discount of 30bucks wat a load of F@cked up SH!t!!!! my m8 in a diff bike shop is now goin to take it straight to a rep and he is more then sure it will have warrenty so stick that up ur ass goldcross! |
| Bike Setup: | planetx bommer xvert dc dual clamp hayes hydros azonic shorty chubby size. all the good stuff! |
| Bottom Line: | always go straight to the source for warrenty if the bike shop doesnt cause there in it for the money not the faults!! also for those handle bar deigners make the bar to a certain point solid aluminium even if its a bit heavier at least it wont snap and i for one will buy it and so will many other riders out there!!! |
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Submitted by
Nick
a Downhiller
from Sydney
Date Reviewed: 9/3/2001 6:56:24 AM |
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| Duration Product Used: | 1 Year |
| Price Paid: | $80 |
| Strengths: | Very Strong and Fat thats why I brought it |
| Weaknesses: | not enough grip room, can't put brake handles close enough to centre for 2 finger braking |
| Similar Products Tried: | Bontranger Crowbar |
| Bike Setup: | Re-spec'd Gary Fisher FH2 |
| Bottom Line: | wouldn't want any other bar as the rest are puss,y and break. |
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Submitted by
Tom Dibley
a Weekend Warrior
from Winchester, Hants, UK
Date Reviewed: 8/26/2001 7:22:46 PM |
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| FavoriteTrail: | Cold Springs |
| Duration Product Used: | 3 months |
| Price Paid: | $70 |
| Purchased At: | Peter Hargroves Cycles |
| Strengths: | Perfect amount of sweep, asthetically pleasing, supposedly the best you could get. |
| Weaknesses: | 10yr warrenty huh? Well, i didn't even need 3 months before having a nasty crash. I was riding alaong and when I went to compress before bunny hopping a wall, the bar gave way, making me ride straight into the wall and scaring my chin. Also, there is not enough room to run Sram Half pipes, XT rapidfire w/indicator or overly long grips. |
| Similar Products Tried: | Club Roost (broke them), x-lite(broke them), x-lite again(yep, broke them too), Specialized own(only bar I never broke), Azonic single wall(never broke). |
| Bike Setup: | Heckler, Bombers, Hammer stem, Sram 9.0sl group, XT hollowtech cranks, discs etc |
| Bottom Line: | The way, Azonic utilizes the second sleeve is fine, but where the sleeve ends, I feel there is a sudden loss of stiffness. i.e. a weak spot |
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Submitted by
Darrell F
from Delta
Date Reviewed: 2/21/2001 11:09:42 PM |
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| FavoriteTrail: | where ever i ride |
| Duration Product Used: | 6 months |
| Price Paid: | $70 |
| Strengths: | the strength is it's strenght! is unbreakabe.anf i few the different for turning. |
| Weaknesses: | little over built...but who cares |
| Similar Products Tried: | damn norco GE bar, some stiff bh bar,titec dh bar........they all bended |
| Bike Setup: | all the heavy stuff i could thow in....name the heavyest thing and i'll have it! |
| Bottom Line: | UNBREAKABLE |
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Submitted by
Arthur Gaillot
a Downhiller
from Paris, France
Date Reviewed: 12/28/2000 8:42:10 AM |
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| FavoriteTrail: | does this really matter? |
| Duration Product Used: | Less than 1 month |
| Purchased At: | LBS |
| Strengths: | Wide, nice angle (2.5), good looking, completely flex-free. |
| Weaknesses: | HUGE WEAKNESS: not enough SPACE for shifter/brake lever/grips. |
| Similar Products Tried: | Azonic DW, Pro Taper |
| Bike Setup: | Giant ATX, Tioga Cube Stem, Hope Pro brake levers, Odi Lock on's, LX shifters. |
| Bottom Line: | I bought this bar about 3 weeks ago. When I installed them i was very disappointed to see that you couldn't push back the brake levers in because of the outer sleeve. I like to have my levers far inside the handlebar to only have one finger braking, this permits one not to have arm pump and to hold the bar with four fingers. This REALLY makes a difference on the long DH courses here in France. I thought i'd get used to having my levers against my shifters and grips (I had to take off the outside metal collar of the lock on to fit everything in!) but i just can't, my hands feel cramped and i don't feel stable at all. I rally wanted to like this bar and felt very much in confidence with the 10 year warranty, but i couldn't get used to it. I sold the Chubby and purchased a Pro Taper, a little less wide but better angles, light, roomy, gold colored hehe;) |
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Submitted by
Aki Hautala
a Downhiller
from Raahe Finland
Date Reviewed: 11/27/2000 10:35:34 PM |
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| FavoriteTrail: | Own Backyard |
| Duration Product Used: | 6 months |
| Price Paid: | $75 |
| Purchased At: | Fox Comp. |
| Strengths: | enough wide,good rise and so damn strong! it´s light weight too begause my finnpeak is guite heavy. |
| Weaknesses: | Not enough room for brake levers if not use a cripshifter and doesn´t fit all gind of stems |
| Similar Products Tried: | Azonic double wall, Club roost hardcore |
| Bike Setup: | Finnpeak Rodeo8Seconds with monster and planet X rims |
| Bottom Line: | i have rode with this bar whole summer and i haven´t got it bend or snap. this product is definitely the best bar what the HC downhiller can get |
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Submitted by
Jerry Johnson
a Weekend Warrior
from Yeah Area, Cali
Date Reviewed: 8/15/2000 11:42:23 AM |
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| FavoriteTrail: | Skeggs |
| Duration Product Used: | 6 months |
| Strengths: | STRENGHT and WIDTH |
| Weaknesses: | none |
| Bike Setup: | GT XCR - Race Face XTR Rolf Dolomites |
| Bottom Line: | I'm 235lbs and have pretty broad shoulders. These bars stronger and wider than anything i've ridden. The only problem I have is sometimes squeezing in between posts are difficult cuz the bars are so damn wide! I was concerned at first with the weight, but I guess if I was really that concerned I'd lay off the burgers. |
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Submitted by
Ten Tonne
a Weekend Warrior
from Melbourne
Date Reviewed: 9/18/1999 |
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| FavoriteTrail: | Army Trail Churchhill National Park |
| Duration Product Used: | less than 1 month |
| Strengths: |
1.5 inche thick walled bars. F#ckin strong |
| Weaknesses: | can't fit my xt pods with indicators on. |
| Similar Products Tried: | Trekking fox, Club roost Ritchey force lite |
| Bike Setup: | DMR Trailstar frame built up from scratch |
| Bottom Line: | These bars are the be all and end all of bars. They even survived a beating over my brothers fat head. If you want a beafy ass bar with the strengnth of 10 atom bombs that wont let you down Buy Azonic |
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Submitted by
Nathan Dole
a Weekend Warrior
from Australia
Date Reviewed: 6/9/1999 |
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| Duration Product Used: | less than 1 month |
| Strengths: | Strong as all shit. |
| Weaknesses: | Couldn't fit xt rapid fire with indicarot window on. |
| Similar Products Tried: | Pazzaz, Pyramid double wall. |
| Bike Setup: | Giant atx990, Azonic shorty, marz z.1 drop off. |
| Bottom Line: | Bloody strong bar. Had to remove indicator window off rapid fire to fit everything on. Good rise and sweep. Great feeling bar. |
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