Advantages Of A Flat Bar

You can keep your crisps next to your pint without spilling any beer.

nickc, flat bars are the naturally evolved, most efficient method of joining the dots on a MTB- its risers that are the fashion.
Back in the MTB Eocene, many riders used different stem rises to tune their position, but those riders that needed higher front ends were jealous of the more aggresive looks of racers bikes with 0 degree stems.
It was a man by the name of Toxteth O'Grady( USA) who discovered that by putting the bars from his sisters shopper onto a MTB, he could preserve the 'cool' looks of a low stem.
O'Grady went on to pioneer other aspects of cycling haute couture, such as The Baggy Short, Peaks on Helmets and The Hairy Leg. 🙂

Toxteth O'Grady( USA)
crikey – what a talented chap he was. Marshmallows, bogeys…and risers?

'The' hairy leg I think you'll find was Ernie Wise.

I just love that this has all come around again 🙂 It's just the same as all the discussions about risers in the mid to late 90s.

FWIW, flat bars are an inherently better design simply because they have fewer bends meaning that for the same weight they'll be stronger or they can be the same strength and lighter.

Flat bars aren't inherently any different to risers – you can get exactly the same position if you play with your stem and where the sweep of the bar is. One of the main differences in the past was that risers tended to have more sweep but the wide flat bars out there currently seem to be taking that on board (eg Salsa, Titec, etc). Of course, to get the same position, you'll need a higher rise stem and that may look a bit crap…

BTW, it was Barry Jaeger wot started the riser bar trend in mtbs.

Clubber,wasn't Barry Jaeger the worlds biggest bottom burp?
"meanwhile, we'll take a short commercial break, and, in part two of the programme, well be discussing 'why longer stems are better'"

400mm with bar ends end of… 😉

FWIW, flat bars are an inherently better design simply because they have fewer bends meaning that for the same weight they'll be stronger or they can be the same strength and lighter.

The bar might be lighter but you would need either a longer stem or a longer steerer tube + spacers to get the same hand position, if you work it all out I would have thought the weight difference would be minimal.

Thanx for everyones input Looking at the Sunline flatbar
any good?

I thought it was flats that were the standard, and what the advantages of risers was?

its risers that are the fashion.

Weird point of view…Clunkers had risers…then for what? A couple of years in the 90's it all went a bit narrow and flat, and people realised after a while that if you wanted to climb at all you needed bar ends, and that really you couldn't steer that well…so in about, what? 98-99 risers started appearing and have been pretty standard ever since, some "fashion" huh?

Time to admit that it was narrow bars that were the fashion blip, and not the other way round. But hey, you ride what you want, and I'll ride what I want, it's all good, no?

Don't risers allow a third dimension of adjustment? that of the forward or backward roll, which changes the wrist position within the constraint of any particular sweep and stem length and rise quite significantly?

PS, the people I see using flat bars always seem really angry/grumpy in the carpark.

Honestly who actually gives a flying frig?

Aesthetics and fashion are for tarts, shove your retro, 90s, niche bollocks and "Gnarr-core" precepts up your Arse and try riding your bastard bikes for a change…

What a barrage, of totally pointless slags!!