Origin 8 Space Bar OR: Out Of The Box

October 18th, 2009 by Guitar Ted

About two years ago or so I was running some Origin 8 Space Bars on some of my rigs. They are a bar that is a pretty similar design to an On One Mary Bar. (Some would even go so far as to say they were a knock off. Can’t say as I’d blame them) Well, they were a great fit for off road with the exception of the fact that they were not quite up to the task of off road abuse. In short, they would break on occasion. So, Origin 8 specifically marks the Space Bar as a non-off roadable bar and if you have one you are mountain biking with, you should cease using it this way immediately. It is a pavement bike bar.

Well, Origin 8 decided to issue a new, off road certified bar to replace the Space Bar for users that wanted an alternative bar for off road. This is the result. The Space Bar OR. (”OR” standing for “off road”) As you can see, it bears little resemblance to what we had with the Space Bar. Gone is the “W” shape (Or “M”- depends on how you look at it!) and now we have something more akin to another “alt” bar out there, the Misfit Psycles FuBar.

Here are the particulars on the Origin 8 Space Bar OR

I noticed that this bar has a very thick wall thickness. It definitely feels beefy. (Yes- and heavy) The clamp area looks better and more defined than it did on my Space Bar, which was an area of concern for me with that design. The width seems a tad on the narrow side to start out with. It might be okay, but I wouldn’t mind extra to play with on a future version. My thinking being that it is easier to cut away material for the end user than it is to add it.

Other than this, it looks to be a great alternative bar. I will get this mounted soon and will report back with a first impressions post soon. Until then check out the Space Bar OR and other Origin 8 products here. http://www.origin-8.com

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8 Responses to “Origin 8 Space Bar OR: Out Of The Box”

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1 Bob on Oct 19th, 2009 at 9:37 am

Emm Esss Arrr Peee???
2 Guitar Ted on Oct 19th, 2009 at 10:21 am

@Bob: The MSRP is about $30.00
3 Bob on Oct 19th, 2009 at 3:14 pm

Nice price, thanks
4 Youngballs on Oct 19th, 2009 at 3:43 pm

Is there any forward sweep on that bar? Doesn’t look like it from the pics. I know that the FuBar has some forward sweep to it. I’m thinkin’ you’d probably need to use a longer stem than normal to get your hands in a desirable position with the Origin 8 Space Bar OR?
5 Guitar Ted on Oct 19th, 2009 at 5:32 pm

@Youngballs: Yes- you’ve got it right there. In fact, the difference is about an inch plus between the FuBar and this one if you overlay the two with the Origin 8 reaching back further than the FuBar due to the Space Bar’s lack of “forward wiggle”. (borrowed that term from Brant Richards )
6 Peter Keiller on Oct 21st, 2009 at 8:11 am

another hit from the cover band ‘original 8′.
7 Rob from Ottawa on Oct 23rd, 2009 at 2:28 pm

People will seriously need to go to a longer stem if they’re putting this on their bike. Not that that’s a bad thing, but without much forward sweep it’s really going to shorten your cockpit.
8 George on Oct 29th, 2009 at 7:09 am

I tried this bar. My impressions are:
Sweep is perfect
Shortens the cockpit by at least 20mm versus a riser bar
Felt just a touch narrow…partially a function of backsweep which angles the wrists
Keep your stem plate tight. Sweep creates leverage to twist bar in stem clamp…same
issue with many alt bars.

I am not a fan of low sweep or the ergos of flat bars and therefore this bar has appeal. I only wished Origin8 would have designed it with some forward sweep as was the original thinner walled Mary knockoff bar as I am treading on the longish side of stem length already as many do for efficient sizing of the mtb cockpit. Therefore to me the Fubar is a better bar…a bit forward sweep and fractionally
longer. Hope that helps others.