Any thoughts and recommendations on AM bars and stems?

Cheers

Easton Havoc/Haven bars, Thomson X4 stem.

i’ve got two set ups.

husselfelt stem and sunline 750mmbars
thomson stem and easton monkeylite bars.

both are nice. depends if you want length or girth 😉

renthal fatbar. sunlines are nice too.

gravity light stuff, mega strong and really light

Easton Haven Stem 70mm
Easton Haven Carbon Bars 710mm
Stiff and no noticeable bar flex.

Monkeybar 685, could really do with 710 something.
55mm Easton Haven.

As above, simply choose roughly Whatever was fashionable in DH a few years back. isn’t the same true of any “All-mountain” product choice? 😛

I just got some cheapo Funn Full On bars off CRC for less than 20 quid, 750mm wide. They go nicely with a 500 Blackspire stem of mine.

Fo’shizzle.

Ayeet.

As above, simply choose roughly Whatever was fashionable in DH a few years back. isn’t the same true of any “All-mountain” product choice?

Pretty much.

I run Sunline V1 stem and bars on my Alps bike. I have an unnatural affection for the stem.

just as well it’s in “the Alps” then, eh?

I have an unnatural affection for Alpen.

Sunline V1 Bars 19mm rise 710 wide, Sunline Am Stem 65mm.
I use this combo for everything.

I have some rather swish chromag bars on my enduro, the look great and they feel great. They are attached to the bike by a 70mm Syncros stem, which is quite nice and not at all fancy.

IMG_0032 by i_ache, on Flickr

Sunline v1 720mm for me too – stem is a RF Diabolus, both are great.

Easton Haven stem is so damn sexy!

I went for the cheapo option of the Zenith AM stem from Superstar (£26) and some 710mm bars from Funn for a massive £14 on CRC….total of £40, job done….love a bargain me!

Haven carbon bars and thomson x4 stem would be delicious.

I like the Race Face Diabolous bar and stem on my big bike , not light though but as I don’t ride it uphill much it’s not a problem.

Pro Koryak kit is good, and well priced (Shimano’s components brand). Sunline also good, and well priced. Gusset Staff is a lovely stem if you like shiny black.

You didn’t quote budget, Easton Haven carbon would be my choice of bars though given free reign. Stems are much of a muchness really, no idea how people can get excited over them or manage to spend a fortune.

Wide bars

I’ll say it again. Wide bars.

They WILL make you faster. The only real penalty is a minuscule amount of weight (30g ish) and you’ll hit a few more trees if you ride through narrow gaps a lot. But for an ‘all mountain’ build you’d be daft not to…

Stem – who cares? I’d buy something cheap and change until you work out how much length/height you want, then buy a Thompson in the right size.

EDIT: By wide bars I mean at least 740mm

I asked this on another thread, has anyone broken a stem… and not just overtightening the cap bolts but proper broken in action?

EDIT: By wide bars I mean at least 740mm

The trees are closer than that on our local cheeky singletrack trails 😯

I can only just get away with 700mm bars – RaceFace Next Carbon Risers, and a Hope 70mm Stem.

Pro FRS 50mm is unbeatable for the money… LINK

It’s lighter than a 50mm thompson and 1/3 the price.

Any bars over 700mm and you’re away

I asked this on another thread, has anyone broken a stem… and not just overtightening the cap bolts but proper broken in action?

Yes, I have.

@ Superficial,

I like what your saying, Wide bars then find your stem size then get a Thomson.
But, I think 60mm would be about right. Thomson don’t do any between 50 and 70.
So, wht’s the best 60mm stem?

Wide bars

I’ll say it again. Wide bars.

They WILL make you faster. The only real penalty is a minuscule amount of weight (30g ish) and you’ll hit a few more trees if you ride through narrow gaps a lot. But for an ‘all mountain’ build you’d be daft not to…

Stem – who cares? I’d buy something cheap and change until you work out how much length/height you want, then buy a Thompson in the right size.

EDIT: By wide bars I mean at least 740mm This is Bollox ^^

in order to ride at your best, having correct bike set-up goes without saying but the only thing that will make you faster is riding faster!

for confident cornering, pumping, jumping and hitting sketchy sections flat out a stiff stem is far more important to me than bar width.

Pro FRS 50mm is unbeatable for the money

+1

I have one of these on my winter hardtail and it’s great.

By a process of experimentation I’ve settled on 45/50mm stems and 19mm rise x 745mm wide Sunline bars on both my bikes (HT and FS).

It’s AM so keep one eye on the weight and the other on the strength – Easton Haven, Sunline AM, and Thompson stems are lovely if you have the budget… but others are avaialble with nearly the same weight but much cheaper (Gusset Staff, Superstar etc)… but watch out for unneccessarily heavy Doonhallers kit.

Bars – I found going to 745mm a great experience with no downsides, but others in the gang have ended up cutting them down to 710/720. I bought my first wide bars cheap figuring I’d cut them down… but never have and like them so much I see no reason to change… I did drop the height and hence bought the low rise Sunlines… although going for Easton Haven Carbons would save a bit of weight from my bikes and wallet.

I do occasionally skiff trees with them but it’s part of the fun – the extra width and short stem make the bike more fun in so many ways. There are many tight tree sections in my local forest but a twist and waggle will get me through at high speed… there is only one section where two trees are perfectly placed to wedge the wide bars… but good technique can see you through and have hillarious results for the folks behind you who don’t know it’s coming.

Wide bars
I’ll say it again. Wide bars.

They WILL make you faster. The only real penalty is a minuscule amount of weight (30g ish) and you’ll hit a few more trees if you ride through narrow gaps a lot. But for an ‘all mountain’ build you’d be daft not to…

Stem – who cares? I’d buy something cheap and change until you work out how much length/height you want, then buy a Thompson in the right size.

EDIT: By wide bars I mean at least 740mm

This is Bollox ^^

He is right ^^

Bar width depends on shoulder width.

A 710mm bar will feel wider to someone with narrow shoulders, that it would to someone with broad shoulders.

So you can’t just say get 740mm bars.

Thanks for all the info so far.

Anyone rate the raceface atlas stem?

Easton DH Carbon 711mm and Hope stem 80mm for me.

Will go Haven bars at some point.

I’m not saying the same width bars for everyone, I’m just saying that for an ‘all mountain’ bike (whatever the hell that is) wider bars have many benefits with very few downsides. I’m saying 740mm bars if you are average sized, go up to 780 if you’re fairly broad, I guess if you’re 5’1 then 710 bars would be considered wide. Adjust from there according to preference. Best to start wide and cut down though, rather than buy bars that are too narrow in the first place.

I’ve heard the mantra that bar width should be the same as (N.B. I didn’t say proportional) you shoulder width – that’s a load of bunkum. Otherwise we’d all be running 620mm bars.

I said before “wide bars will make you faster”. I guess that was a little ambiguous for the pedants on here, so allow me to add some caveats. Wide bars will put your weight further forwards over the front wheel (without ruining steering by putting a long stem on), improving cornering traction. It’ll also allow more precise steering and more leverage when your forks twang on big rocks, leaving you less liable to being steered off course. If you’ve got skills and good strength, then you’ll be able to ride down hills faster.

Superficial – Member

Wide bars

I’ll say it again. Wide bars.

They WILL make you faster.

I went to 800, made me much slower. Cut them to 750, still quite a lot slower. Cut them down to 720, they started to feel alright. Now at 710mm which works nicely for me. I’m 5’10 incidentally. Daft statement.

Hussefelt 680mm bar, Easton Havoc 80mm stem. both cheap on crc. They look nice but with coil Pikes the front end of the bike is quite heavy.

I said before “wide bars will make you faster”. I guess that was a little ambiguous for the pedants on here, so allow me to add some caveats. Wide bars will put your weight further forwards over the front wheel (without ruining steering by putting a long stem on), improving cornering traction. It’ll also allow more precise steering and more leverage when your forks twang on big rocks, leaving you less liable to being steered off course. If you’ve got skills and good strength, then you’ll be able to ride down hills faster.

as will bending your elbows slightly more 🙄
thing is tho.. if you’ve gone too wide you’ll actually no longer be able to get your upper body as far back/up as before. you see far too many goons hunched over the front of their too wide/low bars kraining their necks to even see far enough ahead down the trail these days.
your user name does seem apt here. 😛
if you have timed yourself with different bar widths on the same course/track/routes you ride and found 740 to be the optimum width for you then great! but please don’t spout shite to everyone else that it’s the be all and end all for everyone.

Why does there seem to be a lack of nice light 60mm 0 degree AM stems?
Or am I looking in the wrong places?

‘Bending your elbows slightly more’ might work if you don’t bend your elbows (much) in the first place. But for people who ride fast they probably learnt that trick years ago.

Maybe I’ll change my comment to a meaningless bland PC comment that everyone can agree on: 🙄

“Some people find that wide bars help. Your mileage may vary, other bar widths are available.”

Well, it does have the advantage of not being total balls. So yeah, probably go with that one.