Just curious as to why most off the peg 29ers seem to have flat bars rather than risers?

cos they are ridden by short arses, and need flat bars to make the bike fit………………… 😉

don't know, but when i got mine it came with flat bars so i tried it out and tbh there's nowt wrong with 'em.

got risers on every other bike i own.

29ers give you a very high front end so a riser bar would just make the bike feel way to up right… i think

my "off the peg" GF rig came with risers

What model big n daft?

errrr The Gary Fisher "Rig" bought an old purple one a few years back when they were being sold for £400

warranteed the frame later and now have a 2009 Root Beer version (paragon wih EBB essentially) G2 geometry but works fine with 100mm Reba's

thanks to Swinnertons for being very helpful (replaced headset and EBB as they were incompatible)

Imagine you have two identical bikes, both with 100mm travel forks, 2" rise bars, same steerer length, same rise on the stem etc. But one is a 26" wheeled bike, the other a 29er.

Due to the approx (it's not quite but near enough) 3" extra height of the 29er wheel over the 26", the bars would sit 3" higher than on the 26" bike. To get over this, most 29er frames have short headtubes, which lops maybe an inch off compared to similar 26" wheeled bikes, but the bars would still sit 2" higher… Hence using flat bars to bring the bars down to a sensible height!

Got wide flat bars, low rise stem and a short (175mm) steerer on my 100mm Reba's on my Inbred 29er and it feels right. By comparison I run a 200mm steerer on my 26" wheeled hardtail, which also has 25mm more fork travel, and 1" rise bars to give me a similar position.

The Devil is in the details, as they say! 😉