Cinelli RAM

Sure it seem like a luxury to spend over NZ$1000 for a handlebar but it looks so beautiful. After riding this bike for a while I realised that this was money well spent. These bars are incredibly comfortable. The flat tops of the bar seem to fit nicely with my hands and made long rides very enjoyable.

We got the Polar Heart Rate mount for the bar too. This mount screws into the bar with two small aluminium screws on the base of the bar. It was pretty easy to install just had to push the wires out of the way. Once it was on it worked perfectly.

I use Campagnolo on my setup and with the Cincelli RAM internal cabling, that meant that all my cables were tucked nicely inside the core of the handlebars. This looks fine. Watching the guys at my bikeshop install it though cant say it was easy.

In terms of the strength of the bar I have to admit that I thought a combined bar stem like the RAM would be somewhat stiffer than most stem/bar combinations, that isnt my experience. It may have been that I have a 44cm/130mm size (thats big) and that this enabled some flex. I have some friends that also have the RAM and they assure me its a more solid combination.

Cinelli RAM with Polar HR mount

The only complaint I could possibly find for this bar is that some of the paint on the stem clamp has begun to delaminate. I think this is because I have been using this bar in all weather conditions and I have had water sitting under the stem cap. Again none of my friends have this issue, but worth watching out. If I had keep this bar for a race bike in fine weather all would have been fine I think.

Cinelli make this bar in a number of very nice colour combinations too. My friend has a Pinarello Paris FP in red/white/carbon and he has installed a RAM that matches this bike almost exactly. I have seen some other examples too such as a tiger skin model, and another in full white with spider webs on it. These are really nice.

Cinelli RAM on the Pinarello

I have now retired my RAM and it now has pride of place on top of my china cabinet. It makes a very nice piece of furniture that gets comments from people who don't know anything about cycling. They just recognise lovely carbon creations. Once I get over my need to clip on aero-bars to my road bike the RAM will definitely be going back on.