Funn Upturn 55mm High Riser Handlebar review

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How high is too high? We check out of these lofty 55mm rise Funn Upturn handlebars perform on the trails. The may be high but are they mighty?

  • Brand: Funn
  • Product: Upturn High Riser Handlebar
  • From: Funn MTB
  • Price: £65.90 (currently £61.90 on Amazon)
  • Tested by: Benji for 12 months

Pros

  • Fairly unique rise offerings (also available in 40 and 75mm rises)
  • Nice neutral feel
  • Decent price

Cons

  • 785mm width may not enough for some
  • Graphics not to everyone’s taste
  • 31.8mm only
The grey ones

What is one indication that the bike industry has not yet reached ‘peak geometry’? What component is the biggest red flag to counter the worrying current theory that we have perfected bike geometry?

High rise handlebars.

If you’re of a certain height – say over 5ft 9in – you are still not really being served consistently well by bike geometry. Chances are your chain stays are too short and so is your head tube. The former issue can’t be cured but there is something you can do about short head tubes and the resulting too-low-slung grip height.

High rise handlebars.

Speaking as someone who’s a little over 6ft tall (if I stand up properly and stop slouching), the relatively recent resurgence of Proper Rise Handlebars has been a game changer.

There hasn’t really been an XL size test bike that hasn’t benefited from fitting higher rise handlebars than specced. As bikes have got longer in terms of reach, I’ve found that handling has greatly benefited from going higher in cockpit height.

The return of high rise arguably began with Burgtec’s Ride High bars. These have been joined in my go-to handlebar bin by the likes of Gusset S2 and DMR ODub bars. All of these bars sport 50mm rise.

So I very much welcome this Nigel Tuffnel of high bars from Funn. These bars offer more than just ‘one louder’ though; the ones reviewed here have 55mm of rise. That’s five louder.

Very tall people and/or people with really, really low front end bikes can even get a Funn Upturn bar with a whopping 75mm of rise. There’s also a 40mm rise option too that are well worth trying if you’re Joe/Josephine Average in stature.

In terms of design and fabrication, the Funn Upturn bars are made from 6061 aluminium, have a sandblast finish, a grid of Indication marks for trimming and accurate/consistent controls positioning.

They only come in 31.8mm diameter (which is totally fine by me because 31.8mm is The Best Standard). 785mm width (so wide bar fans may wish to run single collar lock-on grips with encapsulated ends to eek ~10mm more effective width. Colours: black, red, blue, grey, orange and green.

Overall

What is there to say about a set of handlebars beyond the bare dimensions of rise, width and sweeps? Aesthetically, I would say that the Funn Upturn bars aren’t very subtle (the grey ones are as sedate as it gets) which may turn off some potential purchasers. Which is a shame but I get it. In terms of ride feel, the Funn Upturn bars aren’t overly stiff at all. Very neutral. Indeed one thing taller riders will feel most is a sense of relief and neutrality. Finally your hands feel in the place they should have been all along.

Review Info

Brand: Funn
Product: Upturn High Riser Handlebar
From: Funn MTB
Price: £65.90
Tested: by Benji for 12 months

Orange Switch 6er. Stif Squatcher. Schwalbe Magic Mary Purple Addix front. Maxxis DHR II 3C MaxxTerra rear. Coil fan. Ebikes are not evil. I have been a writer for nigh on 20 years, a photographer for 25 years and a mountain biker for 30 years. I have written countless magazine and website features and route guides for the UK mountain bike press, most notably for the esteemed and highly regarded Singletrackworld. Although I am a Lancastrian, I freely admit that West Yorkshire is my favourite place to ride. Rarely a week goes by without me riding and exploring the South Pennines.

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Home Forums Funn Upturn 55mm High Riser Handlebar review

Viewing 20 posts - 1 through 20 (of 20 total)
  • Funn Upturn 55mm High Riser Handlebar review
  • 4
    sharkattack
    Full Member

    I’ve been shouting about high bars ever since I jumped on my first proper LLS bike in 2017. You’re right that they just put your hands where they should be.

    Also I only buy 31.8 bars and stems so that’s a positive for me.

    acidchunks
    Full Member

    Long head tubes are ugly. High rise bars are the awesome.

    I have 60mm bars on an old school geo 29er HT, super comfy, if a little wandery on steeper climbs…

    bikesandboots
    Full Member

    What’s the bike and e system?

    1
    Ben_Haworth
    Full Member

    @bikesandboots Orbea Rise LT.. Shimano EP8 RS.

    1
    Stevet1
    Full Member

    Long head tubes are ugly. High rise bars are the awesome.

    This, Not sure why MTB’s haven’t adopted a standard HT size and then everyone just buys bars to suit, would making swapping forks etc so much easier. The variable HT length comes from road bikes where they can’t just whack on some different height risers for taller . shorter riders so makes sense there, but we should really be adopting a BMX approach where head tubes are all the same length and you pick the bar height that you like to run.

    Mintyjim
    Full Member

    Which is better, if you have the option:

    higher rise bars or spacers under the stem?

    bars don’t reduce the reach, is that correct?

     

    sharkattack
    Full Member

    Bars can reduce the reach but you can roll them forward or backward so it’s your choice. I always start with the upsweep pointing straight up so the face of the bar is vertical. Then the backsweep is pointing the bars towards your hands and not the ground or the sky.

    Headset spacers always eat into the reach because the steerer is pointing towards you.

    In my opinion a high rise bar looks better. A huge stack of spacers make it look like you’re on the wrong size bike.

    Bruce
    Full Member

    If you need spacers or high rise bars it seems that someone didn’t design the bike properly or you have the wrong size.

    Or maybe a quill stem?

    sillyoldman
    Full Member

    Tall bars or spacers both reduce reach. If you roll the bars forward to be steeper than HTA, then you’re increasing effective stem length to offset the reach reduction.

    Speeder
    Full Member

    Those aren’t high rise bars, these are high rise bars!

    DEITY ::: HIGHSIDE 80MM RISE HANDLEBAR – DEITY | Premium Race Goods (deitycomponents.com)

    80mm And they’re great! Takes some getting used to the way they look mind.

    sillyoldman
    Tall bars or spacers both reduce reach. If you roll the bars forward to be steeper than HTA, then you’re increasing effective stem length to offset the reach reduction.

    Spacers yes but bars don’t reduce reach so long as you orientate vertically – it’s the stem location that varies the reach and if you’re comfortable with changing the sweep you can vary the reach slightly by angling the bars fwd or back.

    sillyoldman
    Full Member

    If bars are vertical, they’re rolled forward relative to head angle, and therefore increase the stem length effectively by pushing the bars further forward in relation to the steerer.

    Speeder
    Full Member

    The dimensions of angle and sweep are given relative to vertical as it’s the only constant. (head angles are all different) so bars are defaulted to vertical.  Therefore a vertical bar is at neutral reach.  If you’re angling your riser back to match the fork angle you’re going to be very uncomfortable.

    sillyoldman
    Full Member

    That doesn’t appear to be universally agreed.

    Funn’s own pictures of the product show it mounted in line with HTA, and with the bar markings centred on the stem face plate markings which put the bars in line with HTA as all other brands seem to do.

    thols2
    Full Member

    Not sure why MTB’s haven’t adopted a standard HT size and then everyone just buys bars to suit

    A big heavy rider will put much more stress on the head tube. A longer head tube gives a much longer weld to take the stress and the greater spacing between the headset bearings will reduce the loadings on those too.

    If you raise your hand position, your effective reach will be reduced regardless of how you go about raising them. By effective reach I mean the vertical distance from the cranks to the steering axis at the level of the grips. A longer stem will not change the reach if the grips are at the same height because the point which your hands rotate around is still at the same height.

    Speeder
    Full Member

    sillyoldman
    That doesn’t appear to be universally agreed.

    Well if you don’t agree then that’s not universal but . . .

    Speeder
    Full Member

    sillyoldman

    Funn’s own pictures of the product show it mounted in line with HTA, and with the bar markings centred on the stem face plate markings which put the bars in line with HTA as all other brands seem to do.

    Funn Upturn High Riser Handlebar (funnmtb.com)

    thols2
    Full Member

    Just rotate your bars to whatever position is comfortable to you. There is no correct alignment except what is comfortable. I don’t like upswept bars so I always have to rotate them backwards to find a comfortable position.

    sharkattack
    Full Member

    Looks like this subject is a goldmine for pedants. I just get my grips where I want them and ride my bike.

    sillyoldman
    Full Member

    Quite right!

    1
    steamtb
    Full Member

    I have the 50mm rise vibrocore bars on my Tyee and the Deity 80mm rise bars on the Sentry that my wife uses and we both love high rise bars :) it feels a bit rubbish hopping on a bike without them!

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