Singletrack/MTB
Gravel/All-road
Dirt-road Touring
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Swood Cycles Twisted T-Bar Review: A Simple Solution
From top-loaders to sausage-style harness systems, there are seemingly infinite ways to hold loads of any size on a bike. But, smaller frames and less-than-traditional setups create the need for a secondary market of solutions. In his Swood Cycles Twisted T-Bar Review, Nic dives into this handy little accessory’s origins and how it solves atypical problems…
Though Stephen Wood of Swood Cycles wasn’t the first to market, his Twisted T-bar stem spacer mounted support system is one of the more original solutions for those looking for some lift to their front bag. Why one would want to sport the Twisted T-Bar as opposed to a more traditional rack for front-mounted bags is a question that can really only be answered in practice. From simply not liking the look of a front rack to lacking the mounts to run one, the Twisted T-Bar fills a niche larger than one might initially imagine. I don’t always like the added hassle front racks can sometimes provide, and the look of a large bag without a rack is actually something I value. Vain, I know.
Swood Cycles Twisted T-Bar Design
So, what’s the Twisted T-Bar? Materially speaking, it’s constructed from 3/8″ x .049″ stainless steel tubing and TIG welded to a CNC-machined clamp from Paragon Machine Works. It replaces 12.5mm of spacers underneath the stem on any 1 ⅛” steerer fork, and the “T” design of its namesake can be looped into the daisy chain of any front-mounted bag to avoid excess movement off the front. The support system is rated for 10-to-12-pound loads. All T-Bars are manufactured in Richmond, Virginia, and come with a clear or black powder coat.
To speak to the origins of the product, Swood wasn’t actually the first to create the design. In talking to Stephen about how the production of the Twisted T-Bar began, he mentioned, “A friend of mine who’s not particularly social media savvy showed me a screenshot on his phone one day and asked if I could make him one. Once built, I posted a picture on Instagram and almost instantly got a note from Tom Robinson at Hesson Labs in the UK. I immediately apologized for my ignorance and altered the post to credit his design. Fast forward about a year, I got another note from Tom saying his insurance won’t allow him to sell in the US and offered me his blessing to make and supply them for North America under my own branding.”
Unfortunately, Tom is no longer making products, so Stephen’s site is the only place on the internet to get the original Twisted T-Bar design. “Original” being the operative term there, as in the time since the Twisted T-Bar’s inception, a slew of copycats have hit the market. While some may simply be coincidently crafted at a similar time, it’s not unfair to say the Twisted T-Bar has inspired much of what’s available today. Having tried some of those deeply inspired designs, I can say Swood Cycles’ Twisted T-Bar is head and shoulders above the rest. It’s a small market, but experiences with other support systems that heavily borrowed from the original design ended up fraying cables, boring into the backside of bags, and offering far less ease of use than the design Stephen has iterated upon.
Twisted T-Bar In Use
Logan and I have both put miles on different version of the Twisted T-Bar, with Logan doing so on an earlier edition than my relatively new Twisted T-Bar 2.0. Unfortunately, though Logan was sufficiently impressed with its function and design, the clamp bolt braze-on eventually snapped. While Logan’s version lasted a long time before suffering the break, it’s worth mentioning that it hasn’t rendered the device unusable, more so a bit sketchy. However, I’m happy to report that in my extended experience with the newer version, the area Logan managed to break is significantly beefier in comparison to version one.
The finish is also a bit more polished than version one, and altogether a slight but sound improvement on what was already a great design. Talking to Steven about the differences between version one and two, he said, “Version one was very painful to produce. It took about 45 minutes per bar. The new clamp significantly cut down on production time, as well as switching to a TIG process. The thicker-walled tubing has pretty much eliminated breakage.”
In my own experiences with version two, I found the rack to be a stable, useful design that allowed the appropriate amount of lift to the Carradice-style bag I sought to run off the front of my bike. Without the support, it didn’t quite clear the tire, given how aggressively I typically run my cockpit. Though the load of my Swift Zeitgeist bounced on the roughest of descents, looping the “T” of the bar through the rear-facing daisy chain eliminated any excess movement and cut down on impacts that might have otherwise bent the bar. In addition to that, installation was a breeze, and though I tested it thoroughly after the fact, my test run, being a bikepacking race, only required the addition of a few spacers to my setup if things somehow went wrong. The best bit about my time with the support was that it almost entirely shifted out of focus. It’s effectively invisible when a bag is installed and unobtrusive to any function when running the bike unloaded.
All that said, it’s obvious this support rack works best with certain bags. For example, when I used it to support a Fab’s Fanny on my Velo Orange Rando, a classicly inspired road bike without mounts for racks, it worked but was less ideal than intended. The loose-ish structure of the waxed canvas bag sloughed past the support and encroached on the comfortable clearance I was hoping to gain. It also bounced around a fair bit on the rough-and-tumble route I’d taken during my Nutmeg Nor’Easter experience. When I ran both my Swift Bandito and Outer Shell Drawcord Handlebar bag, the lift provided by the Twisted T-Bar was entirely unnecessary. It didn’t affect the bike’s handling or the function of the bags, but it ruined my carefully crafted aesthetic—something I simply can’t ignore.
The Twisted T-Bar: Made in the USA
Unequivocally, the most common complaint about the Twisted T-Bar has nothing to do with its design—rather, its availability. As stated, each of these bars is fabricated by hand in Richmond, Virginia, and while Stephen has considered a foreign-made production run, it’s not something that made financial sense for him as a small maker. It’s important to note that products like these are part of a larger idea for companies like Swood. Speaking to Stephen about the manufacturing process, he said, “At this point, I can manufacture enough stock to last a few months in just a few days. It’s hard, repetitive work. However, the hourly rate math is sufficient to justify the numbers… T-bar sales are what have allowed me to continue to grow and focus on making frames, which is what I’d like to spend my time doing.”
- Model Tested: Twisted T-Bar Medium
- Actual Weight: 120 grams (4.23 oz)
- Place of Manufacture: Virginia, USA
- Price: $75 at Haute.bike
- Manufacturer’s Details: Haute.Bike
With the MUSA debate being a complex, nuanced topic many across the industry have varied opinions on, it’s cool to see a small framebuilder pave their path to success through the manufacture of a useful and intuitive design. Often, it’s easy to default to the assumption that a well-oiled, large-scale production system is behind the availability of the things we want or need, given so much of our day-to-day world seems to abide by that model. That isn’t the case here, and for Stephen to be able to offer the Twisted T-Bar at an affordable $75 USD price point is pretty incredible. For potential customers, it’s good to remember the time, dedication, and quality that goes into these handmade items.
Pros
- An entirely negligible weight at 120g
- Small, unobtrusive, and doesn’t affect handling
- Doesn’t mar cables and bags like other supports
- Made by hand by a small maker in Virginia, USA
- A viable solution for bikes with shorter headtubes
Cons
- Susceptible to bending
- No current light mount
- Can only handle a limited load
- Not ideal for smaller bags that sit above the support bar
- Requires users to run spacers between T-Bar and stems, particularly aggressive stems
Wrap Up
The Swood Cycles Twisted T-Bar is a discreet, elegant solution to bag-oriented mounting issues other systems might ignore. While I’d be remiss not to mention the semi-philosophical problem with the Twisted T-Bar, it’s a relatively minor qualm that stems from users as opposed to design. Given its capability, users may be encouraged to overrate the capacity it can support. All that really happens is that the support bends backward, eliminating some of the lift its un-bent state provides. When it happened to mine (I’d overloaded it and ridden it across some incredibly rough Oklahoma dirt) I rectified the issue by simply bending it back to its original position, but alloys can only be bent so many times before they weaken. Adhering to the rated 10-pound limit is key if you want your support to stand the test of time.
Applicable to those with small headtubes, a lack of mounting options, and particular aesthetic preferences all the same, Stephen’s made-in-the-USA rack support is the best solution in this niche market.
For more information about the Twisted T-Bar from Swood Cycles, visit Haute.Bike.
Further Reading
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