so how many of you run flat bars on your mtb?

have just fitted some ritchey aluminium 580mm 5 degree flats (along with a ritchey 31.8 70mm stem (i had risers before/just swapped them as they weren’t 31.8 so couldn’t fit my light to them).by the gods i don’t know what it was,but i seemed to ride faster today (am not a quick rider though).it just took me back to the late 80’s-early 90’s when i was reasonably fit/fast.i just seem to gel with the new set up 😀 before i get accused of anti riser bias,would like to make it clear that i like risers also 😉

yep, just recently put flat bars on the xc race bike – I wanted to put bar ends back on for a more aggresive riding position, and I don’t like the way they feel on wide risers – the width and angles are just wrong.

I agree that being slightly lower at the front, and possibly slightly narrower puts me in a more aggressive speed mood.

I’ve been wondering about going back to flats. Never really saw a great deal of benefit to risers apart from the look, especially now that I have a stack of spacers above my stem to lower my front end, perhaps flats are the answer? Also flat carbon bars are cheaper than risers!

Flats here too like the low front end position & my shoulder & back aches are gone too

I got flat bars when I put some 36 Vans on my Pitch – the front end felt high and the bike is plenty slack so flat wide bars helped bring me forwards/down over the front wheel again. I really like them.

Have some 680 Truvativ bars on the winter hack. Like everything else it’s a compromise in this case better at going uphill but not so good downhilll

I’ve got some 600mm flats with bar ends – great climbing position and very comfy on the bar ends – but I’m struggling on the descents/tech – might have more to do with how narrow & long my stem is though

old frame:

Have some 680 Truvativ bars on the winter hack. Like everything else it’s a compromise in this case better at going uphill but not so good downhilll

That’s nothing to do with the fact they’re flat though. That’s wider than plenty of risers, there’s nothing magical about flat bars changing your handling. A higher rise stem/more spacers would achieve exactly the same thing as a riser bar…

me – have done for years probably will for years more. . . after all you can’t run bar ends on risers – it’s just wrong!

Yep, went back to the 600 pro carbon flat bar with ergon grips on my xc earlier this summer, loving them. Looking for a secondhand biopace chainring now, I did hear a rumor they were coming back.

Looks like they never went away: Rotor Q-Ring

Aye, flat bars here on my Socom…they are 760mm wide tho 😉

(not the sort of answer the OP was after I suspect 😉 )

Flats on 3 out of 7 mtbs here.. 😉

Flats on XC full suss, XC HT (with bar ends), and SS, risers on the Big Bike. I know what you mean about flats feeling fast.

Do these count as flat bars?
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bring on the night[/url] by rOcKeTdOgUk[/url], on Flickr

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singletrack blasting[/url] by rOcKeTdOgUk[/url], on Flickr

flats on two of my three mtbs. with longer forks risers tend to put the grips too high for my tastes.

EA70 flats on my Anthem. Love them.

lots of flats on my singlespeedy 29ers including these wide EC70’s which are lovely

rotors Q rings as seen in the salsa are a bit different to biopace and work a storm on a SS as do the new goldtec rings

Yup, have never run anything else.

I’ve just changed to 600mm flat bars from 660mm risers, it suits the new fast twisty Bristol trails.

hardtail, 120mm stem, flipped, flat bars (Easton 23inch wide) bar ends and f’kin fly downhill

flats on my singular and my surly.
both with bar ends too.
comfort over looks for me. 😀

flats on my hx2 to compensate for tallish front end and to help with climbing. Big improvement over the low-risers I was using previosuly…

Ritchey WCS carbon flats and bar ends on my XC race bike. First time out it was “wooooooooooo, wait a minute!” but got into the swing of it and love them now.

Handling much more accurate and loads of fun….I do think you get beaten up a bit more though on bumps, think I probably dont use my back muscles as much on the narrow flat. Bar ends are a must for long, all day events, is lovely being able to move the hands arounds.