Hi all, introduced myself in the chat section but would like some advice about riser bars.

As you can see from the pic, my riding position used to be low and stretched and suited long distance cross country. Singletrack was good, downhill was scarey!

Anyway, for now I’m just trying to get back up to fitness and I’m finding the position a bit uncomfortable – mostly due to my beer gut, I’m getting pressure on my stomach/breathing and my lower back.

My fault for getting so unfit but I was wondering as a “cheap fix” if a riser bar would help?

Or any other suggestions (apart from lay off the beer, I’m doing that already!). Maybe changing the stem would be better?

Cheers, Martin

Stem with some ruse or a riser would prob help u and move u up a bit

Is that seat at the riding height?

Front end already looks fairly high- long head tube, spacers under stem- but changing the stem even by a fairly small amount will help put you into a more neutral position. But go too short and you might just end up knackering hte things the bike does well

It’s not just your beer gut – head down arse in the air is not particularly good for either breathing, seeing where you are going, or for your neck. Yes, get some risers but make them wider, as this opens up your chest as well as making you better in corners – and change the stem to 80-90mm, which still gives you enough of an XC edge.

Northwind, yes, the seat is at riding height. The bike was set-up using a fitting guide at the time, based on efficiency and such like. Always feels like your gonna end up over the bars though!

The stem is 90mm from centre to centre, and the bike handles really well on climbs. It can be a bit twitchy on techinical descents. It’s perfect (I think) on the twisty single track.

dekadanse – thanks for the info regarding breathing,it makes sense. I think I’ll start with a riser and see how that changes my position and breathing.

I don’t want to mess things up with the handling so will do one change at a time.

I look forward to the laughs when I have riser bars with bar ends LOL!

I’ll look out for a second hand riser to try.

Cheers, Martin