What do you ride with risers or flats?

I’m building up a XC bike, but can’t make up my mind. My other bikes got risers but that’s a trail bike so it suits them.

What are the benefits of risers if any on a XC bike and should I go oversized? Looking forward to light being shed on my conundrums.

In Aus where I come from the favoured trail obstacle is the narrow tree gap. This forces a compromise between stability (wide) and speed (narrow).
Here in the UK this obstacle is not popular so I’d go for as wide a bar as you need.
As far as rise is concerned you just need to work out what your preferred saddle to bar drop is and match it on your XC bike.

Got the same decision to make at the moment. After 10 years on risers, I’m thinking about flats & barends for the extra hand position.

Gotta be oversized I reckon, just because the smaller ones seem to be getting a bit thin on the ground.

25.4mm flat bars are getting tricky to find new, and very difficult to find anything ‘wide’. I’m still running them with bar ends ends as I iz jeyboi. Plenty of options for oversize flat bars.

oversized Ragley Carnegie’s flat bars, just coz i find them really comfy

the 1k ride by rOcKeTdOgUk, on Flickr

i built up a new ht recently and thought i’d see what the fuss was about and try some wide flat bars after years riding with risers………..

verdict – hated them. felt just too low and perched over the front which did nothing for confidence on the really steep trails here. maybe they’d be better a little narrower and with a slight rise on the stem ? i’m not getting rid just yet as i’ll try a few more combinations but ultimately i reckon i’ll just be trying to get back to the feel of 685 risers.