Currently ride a Giant Trace for general messing around/xc duties. Which is a load of fun. But I feel it could be slackened out a tad for descents. The reason being my dh bike HA is 64/63.5 and feels super stable. granted this ha would be less than fun on climbs

I’ve put the canecreek conversion headset on there as I managed to get a tapered float 32 fork. and I’m running it at 140mm plus 10mm for the cup so the HA is already a tad slacker than stock.

The plan is to fit sunline flat handlebar. and an offset reducer on the top shock eyelet. I think I may go for the 3mm offset version.

Anyone have any thoughts..?

give it a go and report back – you’re not making massive changes so I doubt it’ll be ruined & may be better, of course

Anyone have any thoughts..?

Why not keep it a fun fast agile xc bike rather than slowing it down on the flats/climbs with a slack head angle?

Because its not as much fun on the descents. And for me thats where the grin factor is

Change the compression in your forks so they dont dive too much as well. Perhaps try changing your stem lenght, shorter.

Move you saddle as well.

Change the sag at the back. All these things will have an effect. But your not doing anything that cant be changed back. Go for it.

compression is about two clicks from full. the stem is currently a 70mm.
I think i’ll give it a blast what could possibly go wrong…

As always it depends on how and what you ride. My experience of fork changing on my 2008 TranceX may advise:

It came with an F120 QR fork – light and plush but ultimately rather noodly compared with the rear-end. Last year, I put a 150mm Sektor air on it – still light and plush but stiffer. At recommend pressures, the front sat-up to much for pedally riding; the BB was too high too. So I lowered the bars and ran the fork soft so it sagged a lot – this helped to an extent, but on climbs the fork extended and felt wrong, and the front was quite mushy even with compression damping turned up.

I recently had the fork reduced to 130mm and reset the pressures – vast improvement in agility, pedal-ability and climbing is OK again. It still descends well. But if you are just riding it downhill, maybe it will be OK with the long fork.

thanks for the comments Buzz

Bringing this back from the dead.

I fitted an offset bush on the trance yesterday and its made a noticeable difference. I bought a 3mm offset bushing off ebay very cheap compared to the others but the quality is great!
I went for a quick ride yesterday and found the bike to be alot more stable on the descents. I think I’ll give the flat bars a miss.

Can someone explain the benefts of flat/ low rise bars? See a lot of DH’ers with them.

They look like they make the handling all wrong-obviously not tho. Anyone care to explain?

riser bars were designed to be used back i the day when Bikes had little or no travel.
stick 6-8 inches of travel on there and the front end is quiet high. so to compensate this a lower ride bar is used to bring the front end back down a tad.
the handling shouldn’t be affected

Nah – don’t get, it surely you want a higher front end when going downhill?

flat bars are lighter and stronger than risers, make the change with the stem/frame and not the bars.

On both my bikes I prefer the feel of lower rise bars – 25mm or so. Not sure if its just mental but it feels like your weight is a bit more over the front which is good for cornering.

You have been listening to people on here too much with their typical slacker is better STW mentality, which is definitely not the case.

I think that when forks were short, riser bars helped when downhill. Now we all have long forks…

tops 5 – Member
Nah – don’t get, it surely you want a higher front end when going downhill?

The front end is higher due to the forks that’s why people put low rise bar on.

You have been listening to people on here too much with their typical slacker is better STW mentality, which is definitely not the case.

I beg to differ initial ride with the offset bush has made a great difference to the ride of the bike

But that’s not a blind test back to back is it?

You bought an “enhancement” so you perceive an “enhancement”

Flat bars should be stronger due to less bends etc but often they are designed with thicker walls to compensate for this and for the fact that they are used more aggressively

But that’s not a blind test back to back is it?

You bought an “enhancement” so you perceive an “enhancement”

Hit up my local track and know how the bike feels on various sections. it just felt more stable on the decents.

don’t worry about what other people think.

i fitted 150mm revs to my mk1 trance (4 inch) and it was sodding awesome.

do what makes you happy.