Looking for help – gunna do a bit of XC racing next year built up the Giant XTc but the cockpit feels cramped – Easton 90mm stem and 660mm bars.

Thinking of some wider flatter bars and a set of bar ends….. You guys got any suggestions please?

Cheers,

Have a look at the KCNC stuff on xcracer.com. Good light stuff…

IMO anything over a 100mm stem these days and your frame sounds too small. Top tubes are longer, stems shorter. So, long top tube and long stem might sound like too small a frame.

Cheers guys

Frame isn’t too small just think I’m not used to the narrow bars compared to the wider havocs I have on the other bike gee…..hence y lwking for a wider XC bar cheers for the suggestion though!

Wider bars for XC racing than 660? Wow, hope no one is stuck behind you in singletrack 🙂

XC racer is a good call, lots of nice light and well priced bits there

Slightly wider bars shouldn’t cause you any bother and will uncramp the cockpit slightly without messing with the stem. You wouldn’t want 800mm of gnar-bar but there’s room for a happy medium there.

Fit can be a bit weird though, I felt a little cramped on my Camber but ended up with a shorter stem, the change of position should logically have made it worse but just moved me around a little.

I use 660 wide low risers and I have wide shoulders compared to a lot of xc racers. Wouldn’t want any wider for racing – the bike starts to feel less ‘racey’ IMO.

Flat bars and bar ends are an option, but for me it puts the front end too low. Everyone’s different though, so it might work for you. Bar ends are great, but on wide bars just feel weird IMO!

PS. it’s worth experimenting with cheap and/or second hand parts until you find what works for you. I went through several iterations 🙂

Put on a pair of borrowed flat bars and some bar ends – quick on road spin and the bike felt awesome…….so some falt bars and bar ends to buy today….any recommendations?

The Mt Zoom stuff on XCRacer is nice, not sure that a longer stem and narrower bars will make it less cramped though 😕

Zoikes, best take my 736mm falts off my 29’er then

There was a bloke about a month back feeling cramped & was looking to slide his saddle back further than possible, fit long stems etc, it turned out to be the dead opposite.

Have a look at this see how far out you are, its free to try.
https://www.ebicycles.com/article/determining-your-bicycle-saddle-height.html