Deity Skywire 35mm Carbon handlebar review – lightweight burly bars for trail-specific duties

Deity is a 100 percent, rider-owned, operated and designed company based in the US. With the UK’s Brendan Fairclough and Canada’s Bas Van Steenbergen sponsored riders, you can be sure they demand the best performance from their kit. 

The Deity Skywire Carbon 35mm bar is intended for enduro, all-mountain and trail use, compared to its Speedway 35mm bar, which is its slightly wider, taller bigger brother if you will, which is more focused on DH and enduro.

35mm bars get a lot of attention, and not always for the most positive reasons, with many finding them way too stiff and just another annoying industry standard to navigate. With more brands releasing 35mm bars, I head out to the trails to see how they perform for mere mortals, in a battle of the best MTB handlebars.  

Design and specifications

Designed for enduro, all-mountain and trial riding, the Skywire Carbon 35mm bar is an 800mm width carbon bar, available in both 15mm and 25mm rises with a back sweep of 9 degrees and a 5 degree upsweep. It’s constructed from unidirectional carbon fibre (UD) – where all the fibres run in the same parallel direction so that certain amounts of compliance and stiffness can be dialled in while still maintaining the strength-to-weight ratio that carbon fibre offers. And the Matt finish also looks awesome.  

The stem clamping area has a textured non-slip surface, and the bars feature clearly printed cut marks for trimming the bars if needed. At full width, they weigh 226 grams and are available in a whopping nine colors to match your ride.

Performance

I tested the 15mm rise version, cut to my preferred width of 780mm. Not being one for color-matching I opted for the stealth black colorway, which looks pretty cool – clamped in place by a matching Diety 50mm length Copperhead stem. 

Fitting the bar was easy. The textured finish offered a firm grip for my stem without needing to overtighten. I’d have preferred a more obvious printed guide for setting up my bar position, with the subtle grey lines quite hard to see. 

I prefer a relatively low-rise bar, so the 15mm rise felt about right. I’ve ridden a few 35mm bars before, so the 5 degree upsweep felt like familiar territory, especially as my Renthal Fatbar Carbon 35, Truvativ Descendant 35 and Race Face SixC 35 bars all feature the same upsweep. 

Fitted to my Specialized 150mm travel enduro bike, the bar position felt pretty comfortable. After a few rides, I found rolling the bars forward a tiny bit provided a more aggressive position over the bars without sacrificing the comfort of the generous back sweep. I was worried chopping them a bit shorter would stiffen them up too much, and on longer runs, it did feel a bit too stiff for my liking. I didn’t suffer any problems with hand fatigue but the front end just felt a bit too rigid. I found that swapping the Copperhead stem to a Truvativ Descendant stem with a narrower faceplate helped a bit. 

I also tested these bars on my carbon downcountry bike. For a smaller, lighter rider like me, 35mm bars probably aren’t the best choice on a longer travel bike, but when fitted to my short-travel ripper, it came alive, adding much-needed stiffness to the front end, sharpening up the handling. Again, hand fatigue was mitigated by the vibration-dampening properties of the UD carbon, proving enough compliance for comfort and control. 

Verdict

For aggressive or heavier riders, this bar could reduce arm pump and improve front-end control on the right bike. As a smaller rider, I found the most benefit with them fitted on an aggressively angled, short travel bike, which improved stiffness and certainly absorbed fatiguing trail vibration. They’re competitively priced in the current market and with lots of colors to choose from are a great way to add some color matching and performance. 

Tech specs: Deity Skywire 35mm Carbon Handlebar

• Price: $179.99 / £154.95 / €179.99
• Material: Unidirectional Carbon fiber
• Length: 800mm
• Rise: 15mm (tested), 25mm
• Backsweep: 9 degrees
• Upsweep: 5 degrees
• Colors: 9
• Weight: 226 grams
• Rival products: Renthal Fatbar 35, Raceface Sixc 35