MY new steed (stumpy) is equipped with 25mm risers, which feel pretty high to me…coupled with a reasonably high front end anyway. There’s no spacers for me to play around with.

My initial impressions are that it gives me confidence when pointing downward, but feels a bit high for climbs and railing flat corners.

Has anyone swapped for a much flatter bar? or gone the other way? How much difference does it make and is it worth it?

10mm rise renthals are a great shape but currently trying out some 10mm rise spank vibrocores which are almost flat in comparison.

Can you do anything with spacers or flipping the stem over? I like a fairly low bar but there’s various ways to ge that, or to try it out without having to spend much

(headsets are another one, I took about 6mm out of the height of my bars by swapping the headset top cap over)

I think the only thing I can do is flip the stem. There’s nothing else to play with!

But I guess I wanted to know the pros and cons of riser v flat before meddling!

I guess I wanted to know the pros and cons of riser v flat before meddling

No pros or cons really, its purely for dialling in your cockpit on a particular frame. A tall rider riding a smaller frame may need lots of rise to get it to fit. Likewise, a smaller rider on a long travel big wheel 29er might need a flat bar to keep the stack down.

If your cockpit feels too high and you have no spacers to play with then a flatter bar is the way to go.