Manufacturer circumvents UCI restrictions on lever position with new bar design

Italian brand Toot Racing have shared images of a new handlebar design that circumvents the UCI’s brake lever position rules.

It was announced at the conclusion of last season that for 2024 and 2025 the UCI would clamp down on the aero trend of riders turning their brake levers inwards. The rationale behind this trend was to allow riders to reduce their frontal area and increase their aerodynamic efficiency.

The UCI decided to rule against this pattern citing safety concerns for riders, with a reduction in control of the brakes.

It transpires that the UCI are taking this new rule change seriously with images showing bikes being checked by commissars at the first races of the 2024 season at the Tour Down Under.

As of 2024, riders are allowed a maximum lever angle of 10 degrees off the natural plane of the handlebars. This allows riders to have some room to find a comfortable position but does limit the aero advantage significantly.

What Toot Racing has done with this new bar is comply with both the new UCI lever rules as well as the existing minimum bar width rules. As it stands, the rules regarding bar width state that the widest part of the bar must be no narrower than 350mm. The bars meet this requirement with the drops measuring in at the necessary 350mm but the bars then aggressively flare inwards up to the tops, which measure in at a rather slender 210mm.

Read more:

• Adam Hansen backs UCI’s turned-in brake lever ban
• Quinn Simmons believes UCI is overlooking bigger safety issues amid new lever regulations

The angle that the bars flare in at also allows for the levers to be mounted at this angle as they technically aren’t deviating from the profile of the bar. This means that at the lever hood the width can be as small as 147mm. This is under half that of the UCI’s minimum width rule, all whilst complying with the necessary regulations.

The bars do not come cheap as they are 3D-printed and for an arguably very small market. At €1,390 for a set you have to be desperate to get every marginal gain going to fork out for these.

With new technology like this coming to light in order to circumvent the new UCI rules, will it be long before we see a more stringent ruling on bar width and lever angle to stop this? Or, will we start to see bars like this becoming a frequent addition to pro bikes within the peloton? Let us know your thoughts!