Top 9 Best BMX Bars of 2024 | Expert Reviews and Buying Guide

I'm surprised it's taken this long to write about the Best BMX Bars on the market. We seem to have got through a lot of different parts from Stems to Wheels and Spokes but I haven't even mentioned what bars you should be looking at. The subject of BMX bars is slightly weird in that its a pivotal part of the bike that should be thought about deeply before buying but in reality there isn't a large amount of variety from one to another.

Having said that, over the years there have been various styles come and go, just like any other BMX part. There have been larger and smaller bars, four-piece and two-piece have gone through.

Our top choices

Our Choice

Odyssey Lumberjack XXL

We chose the Lumberjack bar because it's so big, simple and a great option for so many types of rider. It's a great beginners bar that also stands up to some tremendous abuse.

Cheapest

BSD Zingbar Handlebars

The Zingbars are from one of the top brands but is the cheapes in this list by a fair few pennies. The quality definitely doesn't seem lesser than the others.

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Upgrade Pick

Federal Drop V2 4-pc Bars

Four piece bars aren't for everyone. These bars are very popular with street riders and will be a great upgrade for those beginners that are learning some good skills while getting into street riding.

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Liam Zingbergs is a great up and coming rider from Adelaide. A very stylish rider that tears up on the streets. After seeing him ride, it's no surprise that he's on the pro team of BSD with his own line of signature parts.

'Zingbars' is a great name for a signature product. It's not often riders have such a great wordplay between their name and the name of the product.

If you're riding a significant amount of BMX park and street these bars will be great for you. Street riding is tricky and technical. Riders need to be able to hop, spin and grind easily without a preferable run-up. Taller bars with a fairly upright posture will be good for people that need a fast, responsive bike without the need for masses of speed.

The lightest BMX bars in this post, the BSD zingbars are a similar weight to the lumberjack bars but they're almost a pound lighter than some other products in this list.

BSD BMX - Liam Zingbergs - Daze Off

Seventies Distribution launched Federal BMX back in the year 2000. Launched out of Hastings in the UK, 2000 was a great year to launch a new bike brand in the United Kingdom. BMX had grasped a firm grip around riders throughout the world, bikes we're starting to evolve into high-quality pieces of equipment.

Seventies Distribution we're the perfect group to make a new BMX brand out of the UK.

The turn of the century was also the time of the internet revolution. The amount of added eyes the internet gave companies like Federal was brilliant for their notoriety.

For nearly their whole life, Federal has been perfecting the BMX bars. The angles, height, width and arm position have all been meticulously researched and perfected for their latest bars. As well as the brilliant design and geometry, I think the sleek yet understated design of these bars are brilliant. There are no garish stickers, Federal has simply embossed a small logo to the cross-section of the bars.

4 piece and 2 piece BMX bars have barely any differences. I don't know if you could even count it as a difference but four-piece handlebars are sometimes slightly heavier, simply due to the added material needed to attach the bottom crossbar.

Since their first iteration, the drop bars have had various changes. The version two features butted tubing to shave off weight on the extra piece of metal. The bars angles have also been carefully updated. Knowing the type of riders that buy and ride your products is very important for a BMX brand. Updating products would be pointless if the new features aren't beneficial for their target riders. Federal has done great research on their customers and has updated the bars accordingly. I believe their target has changed between the first and second bar versions.

Odyssey Lumberjack XXL BMX Bars 2024

Odyssey is one of the biggest and best bike part manufacturers that don't make full bikes. With the number of parts, they've designed and manufactured they wouldn't be far off being able to build a full bike out of their parts alone.

If you've read any of our other Top 10 lists you'll have probably come across a few of their products, I find myself writing the word 'Odyssey' more and more.

The large defining historical event for Odyssey was the creation of the Gyro Detangler. The company invented the gyro and so are the only company with the rights to use that name to describe their products.

Another of the significant product breakthroughs they've had is the Elementary Stem. The product earned the company a design distinction award from ID magazine in 2005. This stem evolved the regular design feature of having 6 bolts. Instead of the usual 6 Odyssey only used one expansion bolt that goes straight down the steerer tube of the fork.

The Lumberjack bars are a response to the Slam bar. Classic, large bar geometry has been used with a lower rise of 8.25”. The curves of the Lumberjack bars are curved in a larger radius than normal. It's very subtle but this small difference helps increase the strength of the bars. If tubular metal like this is bent in a sharper way the curved areas will have a much weaker point than the rest of the bars.

BMX / Stampy R&D - Handlebars

Cult is a great old time BMX brand and has been creating great BMX bikes and parts for many years. Cult is unlike many brands in that they make a vast amount of products. There are currently 8 different BMX bars being sold by Cult alone. BMX bars aren't the only thing Cult has dedicated a lot of time designing. Many other bike parts have many variations.

The Cult AK bars are a very generic pair of bars that can be used effectively by almost all types of riders. Alex Kennedy, a great park rider from the UK, had a significant role in the design of these bars. It's not the most ingenious name but Alex's signature series is simply named the AK range. This features his 4130 Chromoly frame, signature grips, tripod seat and these great bars.

You probably won't recognise Kennedy from many competitions as he is reportedly isn't fond of them. Though this is true, he's had top 10 finishes in X Games 2012 and 13. If you would like to see more of Kennedy's street riding, he's featured in some high-value Cult videos where he boasts his very wide variety of tricks.

AK Bars have been developed in four different spec variations, ranging from 9” to 10” and from a respectable 1.89lbs to 1.98lbs. The bars' upsweep, backsweep and width have stayed the same between variations.

The Shadow Conspiracy Vultus bars are some of the most popular BMX bike bars in the world. They come in two versions, the Featherweight and the SG. The special Lightweight 13B tubing profile is used for the Featherweight version.

The design of the BMX bar is inherently fairly simple, granted there's a good design change between 2pc and 4pc bars but within each of these categories, there's never much change.

Shadow is a successful company. They spend a lot of time and money researching and developing even small ways to increase the performance of their bike parts. The Vultus gets its reputation for being super strong thanks to changes in thickness over different parts of the bars.

Stress testing bike bars have shown the areas of the handlebar that undergo the most stress when riding. It may seem obvious that the high-stress areas are those near the joins and the curves but knowing exactly where highest stress areas are located is very helpful to Shadow, they can easily increase the thickness of their bars at these specific sections while keeping the rest of the handlebar the same thickness.

The SG version stands for 'Street Guage' due to the square tubing that is used during construction. It goes without saying that this version is perfect for BMX street riders that want a new set of bars.

From my experience and research, it seems most people agree that there are only two bad things about this product, neither of which are huge deal breakers. The first problem is the paint chipping. Some people find that the paint isn't the most durable and can start to chip before you would expect it too.

The second complaint riders have is the price of these forks. While the quality is tremendous and I haven't read a single report of them bending or breaking, these forks are definitely for those that are looking to get serious about biking. I wouldn't buy these if I was a beginner, customizing my first bike and still trying to figure out if I loved this sport.

Shadow Vultus Bars Review

Garrett Reynolds has been a very successful BMX rider for many years. From the early age of 16, Reynolds has been making a dent in the BMX world. It's no surprise that Garrett was gaining a reputation. He'd already been a professional rider for 3 years.

Taz Tour, Dew Tour and X Games medals must've littered the young riders wall. Over the next several years. Once Garrett reached 18 he was competing in all the internationally acclaimed BMX park and street competitions all over the world. It's not surprising that he has been dominating these competitions ever since.

Fiend is great for more than just their high-quality BMX parts. The characteristics and message of the brand are very commendable. For once there is a company that isn't all about profits and dominating the market. Ever since the creation of Fiend, Garrett has concentrated on riding with friends, winning competitions and making great BMX parts.

It's only right that the owner of Fiend BMX and one of the best street riders in the world have their own signature series at their own BMX brand. You don't see too many top BMX riders starting their own wildly successful BMX brands these days. I think Garrett Reynolds has done a smashing job with this company.

The Fiend Reynolds bars aren't anything crazy different to 90% of the other bars on the market. Fiend pre-cut these bars to be quite short. Down to just 28”. This is Garretts' personal preference and so the company cut the bars before sale. The 9” rise, 12° backsweep and 1° of upsweep is different to a lot of other bars. You'll see from reading through this list that most bars have at least 2 or 3 degrees of upsweep but the Reynolds bars have just 1! The ends of the bars are near enough at a right angle to the rest of the product.

Garrett Reynolds signature fiend bars explained and review

United is another BMX brand created in the UK during the early 2000s. Hastings, UK was the birthplace for the brand and it didn't take long before the brand was turning out some of the finest BMX parts the world over.

Ian Morris founded the brand intending to develop high-quality parts through thorough research without becoming a brand that centres itself around money-making and profit.

United have done a great job at recruiting riders for their pro team throughout the years. Their product line includes signatures from Corey Martinez (Martinez Pro), Kye & Leo Forte who helped with the KL40 Pro and Geoff Slattery's 'G-Slat'.

The Supreme bars are a non-heat-treated and are perfect for the average/intermediate rider. You'll be able to comfortably drop several feet and perform a wide variety of complicated tricks without any worries.

If you're looking to ride anything more advanced or harder then you might want to look into some higher quality bars. Supreme bike bars have thicker tubing which will help, but the lack of heat treating knocks the standard back down.

The BSD Grime bike bars are some of the only 4 piece bars I have included on this list. I prefer two-piece bars but many people have different opinions. That's about as far as the differences go.

Granted there are regular arguments between riders thinking the extra welds make the bars weaker since there are only the welds that keep the bars together. On the other hand, there is an argument to be made that the two-piece, curved bars are the inferior type since curved tubing will start to lose its strength if it's bent too far.

The Grime bars are Denim Cox's signature bars. Cox is a great street rider, who travels the world making some great BMX content for BSD. Denim himself tells the story as a random conversation he had with a BSD employee he was on a biking trip with.

Denim was riding in Thailand, testing some prototype four-piece bars given to him by BSD. When it was noticed how much he enjoyed riding these bars the company decided to develop on the design and create his first signature part.

It wasn't only Denim's first foray into the world of 4-pc BMX bar design. This was BSD's first set of four-piece bars, made available in two height options, 9” & 9.5”. The Grime bars are perfect for street riding, four-piece bars generally are. The smaller backsweep and upsweep give the rider greater leverage when performing intricate tricks on less than favourable obstacles.

DENIM COX Grime Frame Bike Check | BSD BMX

DK Sigma Bars (Drew Bezanson)

DK is a bike brand I haven't had masses of experience with. The shoes are brilliant and I know from other people that the bike parts are also of great quality.

I decided to add the DK Sigma to the end of this list simply due to its signature designer, Drew Bezanson. Drew is easily one of the best BMX park riders in the world. If you haven't seen his videos you're seriously missing out.

Over recent years Bezanson, with the help of Red Bull has been venturing into the world of dirt jump riding. In his first season of the FMB world tour he placed very respectably.

Drew is sponsored by DK bikes so it's no surprise that he has a signature series with them while also riding their parts. Having said this, I still think these parts must be brilliant for one of the best riders on the planet.

Be careful when buying these bars if you don't like a tall bike. DK have attached an 8.625” rise to these handlebars. In some ways, this high rise coupled with the width of 28.5” will improve your hopping and control ability but you may have an issue with the height if you're a smaller rider. Spinning your bars during a barspin can also give your problems if you don't cut your bars down.

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