As per the title. Coming from a road background I’m used to having the bars around 10cm lower than my saddle. Just wondering whether this is normal off road as well.

On my road bike, tops of the bars roughly 8-10cm lower than the top of the saddle.

On both my MTB’s, saddle and bars roughly level.

Would expect on an XC race bike your bars will be slightly lower than the saddle (but not as low as on a road bike), and on a DH bike the bars will be a lot higher than the saddle. Everything else will be somewhere near level probably, depending on your leg length and preferred bar height.

There is no normal! You might as well forget a lot of your roadie rules as there are too many new variables in off road mtb riding.

As above no rules it’s what feels right. If your having fun you will be stood up.

It’s easy enough to change even during a ride so play about.

Stem slammed on all bikes, its all about asthetics for me, comfort? Pah!

I’m 6’4″ so the bars are quite low in comparison as the height determining factor is more the amount of travel (or lack of) that the forks have, I have 140mm forks on one bike and rigid forks on another and a others in between so all my bikes are different.

I generally ride around the xc bike with them sort of level, on the fun bike the saddle is probably 10cm lower than the bars, it really doesn’t matter as most of us don’t ride for maximum efficiency, we ride for maximum control and fun so get the saddle down a bit!

It’s a mountain bike, not a road bike: Therefore, set your bar height so the bike corners and descends as you want when you’re standing (get off the saddle if you’re not already!) Set your saddle height so you can pedal comfortably. The relationship between bar height and saddle height will thus vary from bike to bike. Unless you want to be a ‘dirt roadie’ forget all the roadie ‘rules’ when it comes to MTBs.

My saddle is a few inches higher than my bars on my 140mm trail hardtail.

I’m quite tall and need the leg extension.

Of course, all this is meaningless when I hit the trail as one stands up…

Thanks folks. This is a follow-on from my “bigger bike for descending” thread and general “which bike to keep” dilemma. I’d pretty much convinced myself that I needed the larger frame for confidence on the descents. But this was based on my default “bars 10cm lower than saddle” setup. Then I tried raising the bars on the medium frame yesterday and suddenly it felt a whole lot better. More comfortable standing up on descents and easier to move about. Still need to do some more testing but I guess it’s too early to conclude that the large frame size really suits me better.

Bars and saddles on my off roaders roughly level for now but every few years the bars rise a little to combat the aches of increasing age. A couple of years ago I flipped the stem on my road bike so the top of the bars is now level with the saddle. By the time I get to retirement age it’ll be cruiser bars all round.

Handlebar position: the secret revealed

Short track and saddle height

Fantastic thanks for those links. I think I could be Jeff (right down to the travel adjust forks).

I find saddle height itself less of an issue. I’d noticed that my ideal height (even when climbing) was around 2cm lower than on the road bike. I also find that my GD Turbo seatpost gives me pretty much ideal Climb, Trail and Descend positions. It’s more a matter of feeling comfortable when standing in the “attack position”. I’ll have a play with a few different heights this weekend and see how I get on.

With my Reverb fitted the saddle is approximately level* with the bars

*Within 125mm

😀

If had my bars the same height as my saddle I’d need a huuuuge steerer on my forks or a massive rise on my stem. Long legs = high saddle

Bike and rider shape specific. Just mess about until happy. On both my mountain bike the bars ended up roughly at the same height as the the full-extension saddle position when the bike is unweighted. On the the HT this brings the bars lower when on it, as the fork sags, but then the stem is a bit longer (90mm). On the FS they are roughly the same as both fork and shock sag. So I kinda agree with Lee that short-high and long-low both work.

With regards to your “bigger bike for descendong” kids dilemma I’d be taking a lot of the advice on here with a pinch of salt if I were you. I very much doubt many riders are ever actually riding anything so rough and fast that they require the extra stability of a (what? 20mm?) longer wheelbase. Along with slacker head angles, longer wheelbases seem to be in fashion just now and the benefits won’t even be relevant to everyone.
At your height, I’d steer clear of anything with over an18″ seat tube measurement purely to avoid reducing stand over height and allow you to drop your saddle enough should the situation arise.