Hi all, looking to upgrade my current bars. I believe they are 20mm. I tend to ride steep tech trails for the majority so whilst I'm tall and don't have any complaints in the back, neck or hand department I do want to be further shifted back when descending for some more control and better body positioning.
Had my current set up for 5 years now and just not getting on with it descending so hoping this will improve the ride. Whilst I can get down most steep trails around I don't often do it confidently so want to start with this as my current bars feel rather on the flat side.
I know it'll affect the climbing but I'm happy for the trade off if I'll have more control on the downs.
My issue is, looking at a couple of options and they have 30mm and 40mm. If I went 30mm will I even notice an extra 10mm rise to my current set up? Or would 40mm be a better option or just overkill? I guess it's personal preference at the end of the day but just trying to work out if I would even notice the difference.
TIA
40mm
Have you got any steerer height to play with?
Just go to 40mm. I loved my 40mm Fatbar.
I've got a 30mm Fatbar and a 40mm Fatbar. If I do some stretching then the 30mm seems to work well as I tend to have a bit more weight on the front end - the lower bar does have me leaned over a bit more.
However, I'm well out of practice and I don't stretch so the 40mm is on for now and it works. I need to probably put the 30mm back on as I've gone way back in my riding 'skills' and seem to be moving back away from the front so the front is getting very washy due to not having any weight on it. The 30mm will help with that.
The 40mm works better though as I suspect the difference between my saddle height and bar height (about 7" taller on the saddle) will be worse with the 30mm rise instead.
To be honest, the height of my bars is the least of my concerns just now - I'm doing far too much thinking to ride the bike as I'm so out of practice and so lacking in fitness.
Go for the 40mm - if it feels too much, you could always swap a spacer to be over the stem.
Most long-legged riders have their bars too low. 40mm definitely over 30mm. But if you’re tall and your stack height is low (and/or steerer short) then you might need more. I’m not even 6’ tall and run 40mm risers with a 29” 160mm forked front end!
Nowt bit of difference in feel going from 20 to 30 and as mentioned if tall tall above 6ft you may want a fiddy mm rise.
Also roll your bars to optimum position if you haven't tried this yet.
Thanks all. I am fairly tall at 6" 2. Guess my only concern is the front wheel washing out on drops/loose corners in the dry with a higher rise bar. I'm already running 180mm Zeb's and have quite a slack bike anyway (santa cruz Nomad) so don't want the 40mm to be overkill but didn't want to waste £100 odd going from 20mm to 30mm with negligible difference.
I wish I didn't overthink everything lol.
You can always drop your elbows to get your weight down for corners, Im just under 6'6" and run 38mm Renthals, I did prefer 50mm Spank but didn't like the harshness of Vibrocore. One negative aspect of taller bars is you need a decent stem to clamp them well otherwise they can slip/rotate. I rotated the spank bars a few times in a 50mm Thomson stem when doing nose manuals over rollers or really pumping into stuff.
I had a similar problem and messed around with 40 mm bars and different stems. A Spank Spoon 75 mm bar was much better.
https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/jp/en/spank-spoon-800-skyscraper-riser-handlebar/rp-prod197255
How can you get your weight properly balanced with such a tall front end? I mean I get it brings you backwards so you're further away from scary things and that's nice, but the leverage angles must be pretty weird and wash out in flatter off camber corners?
Ever since 29ers came around I've had my front end mostly slammed or with a limited stack. I'm about 6ft, but I do have reasonably long arms.
Do EWS pros run 75mm+ risers?
How can you get your weight properly balanced with such a tall front end?
I should have mentioned that I'm still riding a 26"er.
However, the bar rise you need will come back to a bunch of other things. How long is the head tube, how long is the steerer, how many spacers do you have under the stem, how much rise does the stem have, the type of riding you do, the specific trails you ride, your personal preferences, your own body proportions.
Ever since 29ers came around I’ve had my front end mostly slammed or with a limited stack. I’m about 6ft, but I do have reasonably long arms.
What works for you might not work for everyone. If the OP is wanting to raise his bars, getting more rise is probably a better bet than less.
@thols2 off topic but
A Spank Spoon 75 mm bar was much better
Do you think those bars have enough space to fit a light? Exposure MaxxD type size?
I think people have some pretty wild assumptions about what a high rise bar will do to the handling of your bike.
What are you really doing when you switch from a 20mm to a 40mm rise bar? You're only raising your hands by 2 tiny centimetres. Your body will still be in the same place and you still have flexible elbows. You won't be tilted off the back of the bike to the point where you're wildly understeering in corners. Hopefully you aren't using the extra 20mm to hang off the back on steep stuff with your arms locked out because if you are you're doing it wrong anyway.
I think having a high bar is just about putting your hands in a more comfortable place. You can still place your body anywhere you like when you're climbing and cornering etc.
I've thought about this a lot because I'm 6'2" and I always knew bikes were tiny, especially L and XL bikes with short headtubes. I've had a lot of high rise bars since the 90's.
Do you think those bars have enough space to fit a light? Exposure MaxxD type size?
I doubt it, but I don't know your lights. I think you'd need a bracket that straddled the stem faceplate or use a stem spacer mount.
I played around with the same bars with a low then a high rise and feel I have better grip front and back with 45mm rise and maximum stack height. It also feels more comfortable and confidence inspiring on the harder blacks at places like BPW, Dyfi, Revs etc. I suspect not everyone would feel the same?!?
Maybe we need to organise STW parts testing days, we all take a load of different bars, grips, pedals etc for people to try and play with 🙂
I think I found higher bars helped with leverage to push the front down without needing to shift my body as far forward.
I doubt it, but I don’t know your lights. I think you’d need a bracket that straddled the stem faceplate or use a stem spacer mount.
Thanks. I suspected as much but thought it worth asking someone who has a set
[quote=steamtb]Maybe we need to organise STW parts testing days, we all take a load of different bars, grips, pedals etc for people to try
Sign me up ha.
Thanks everyone for the tips. I wish the Fatbar did come in 35mm rise as would be perfectly in the middle for me. Will debate it for the next few days and make my mind up ready to order one for the weekend. Thanks
“Do you think those bars have enough space to fit a light? Exposure MaxxD type size?”
I’ve got 40mm rise Renthals on both bikes, and both have Maxx-D mounts on them. Incidentally, I’m writing this in A&E which is quite confusing - I appear to have crashed my bike!
The Renthals (I have some) appear to have a wider flat area than the 70mm Spanks linked above. And I’ve eyed up those discounted Spanks before as I fancy giving them a try. At night obviously, hence my query about fitting lights, as they are rather ugly 😀
Hope you aren’t too badly injured chief
“Hope you aren’t too badly injured chief”
CT scan on head and neck ok! Just waiting on a hand x-ray…